Laws and Regulations of Emission Controls for Land-use Non-road Engines

Structure of the Legislative system of emission controls in Japan

Last updated: Mach 28, 2013

The emission regulations enforced and applied in Japan are shown by coloured cells in the following table.

Machineries to be installed Land-use non-road machineries Motor vehicle
Transportable (Handheld or Non-handheld) Never operated on public road May be operated on public road
19 < kW 19 ≥ kW 19 < kW 19 ≥ kW
Legislative control no no Act for NSMV no Motor Vehicles Act Motor Vehicles Act
Setting limits no no Air pollution Control Law no Air pollution Control Law Air pollution Control Law
Voluntary regulation of LEMA applied applied no applied no no

Notes:
=The colored cells show the engine, whose limits are specified based on Air Pollution Control Law and which are controlled by either "Motor Vehicles Act" or "Act on Regulation, Etc. of Emissions from Non-road Special Motor Vehicle". In the above table, the latter is abbreviated to Act for NSMV.

The emission limits for non-road mobile machineries has been specified by the Minister of the Environment under the authority of Air Pollution Control Law, as same manner as general type of motor vehicles. The limits are promulgated by the Minister of the Environment based upon the recommendation reported by the Central Environment Council (CEC), which has been established under the authority of the Basic Environment Law.

The applications of non-road engines to be regulated for the exhaust emissions are Special motor vehicles and Non-road special motor vehicles. Special motor vehicles are the types of Motor vehicles shown as follows; shovel loaders, tyre rollers, road rollers, motor graders, road stabilizers, motor scraper, rotary snow-plows, asphalt finishers, tyre dozers, motor sweepers, dumpers, wheeled hammers, wheeled breakers, fork lift trucks, fork loaders, wheeled cranes, straddle carriers, turret-type platform trucks, motor vehicles designated by Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Special motor vehicles could be specified as those motor vehicles other than Ordinary-sized motor vehicles, small-sized motor vehicles and Mini-sized motor vehicles or other than passenger car, trucks or buses.

Non-road special motor vehicles are those non-road mobile machineries, which are propelled on land by the engine installed in the vehicles, as same as special vehicles. But it differs from special motor vehicles from the fact that non-road special motor vehicles do never run on public road and used other place than on public road. The engines installed in either special motor vehicles or non-road special motor vehicles are intended to use for propelling its vehicles as well as for powering the works to be aimed by this vehicles.

When new regulation is introduced, the Ministry of the Environment is to specify the allowable limits of exhaust emissions from the engines of Special motor vehicles and Non-road special motor vehicles, referring the results of studies by the Central Environment Council and the related requirements and the technical standards for Special Motor Vehicles is to be promulgated under the authority of Motor vehicles Act and for Non-road special vehicles is to be promulgated under the authority of Act on Regulation, Etc. of Emissions from Non-road Special Motor Vehicles.

Legislation of emission controls for land-use non-road mobile machineries in Japan

Current regulation for Special vehicles engines fueled by diesel-oil

Last update: November 13, 2019

Stage four regulation has been introduced from 2014 to 2016, which has been recommended by the Central Environment Council to introduce as the new emission limits for special motor vehicles and non-road special motor vehicles fueled by diesel oil by its nineth report to the Minister of the Environment on January 2008. On August 2012, CEC has also reported its recommendation by its eleventh report, in which RMC(Ramped Modal Cycle) is to be added as an option of the steady test cycle to the existing discrete test cycle and blow by gas is not to be emitted into the environmental air or has to be measured the exhaust emission with blow-by gas, if it is not closed.

In paragraph 1.3 of the nineth report, the recommendation on the emission limits could be found and in paragraph 3.2 of the eleventh report, the topic on RMC has been prepared. The additional infomration prepared for UN-EC GRPE has been used to introduce the emission regulation of the special motor vehicle regulation in UN-ECE WP.29 by Japanese government. (Note: Following reports have been encrypted not to be edited.)

  CEC nineth report, January 29, 2008
  CEC eleventh report, August 10, 2012
  (Additional information) Informal document No. GRPE-56-03, for 56th GRPE 3-6 June, 2008

Based on those reports, the amendment of "Announcement stipulating items necessary for arranging relationship of application of provisions of chapter 2 and 3 of safety regulations for road vehicles" as well as the amendment of "Announcement stipulating items necessary for the emission regulation of non-road special motor vehicles" have been promulgated on January 2014 by MLIT. By the amendment of the "Announcement that prescribes details of safety regulations for road vehicles" promulgated on same date, the difference between Japanese technical regulation of Attachment 43 and NRMM gtr has been decreased furthermore.

Power ranges (kW) and test mode Applied from Limits (g/kWh) Absorption(m-1)
CO NMHC NOX PM
Special vehicles and non-road special vehicles fueled by diesel oil (Steady 8-mode discrete or RMC and transient NRTC cycle) at or above 19 kW, and less than 37 kW 1. Oct. 2016 5.0 0.7 4.0 0.03 0.50
at or above 37 kW, and less than 56 kW 1. Oct. 2016 5.0 0.7 4.0 0.025 0.50
at or above 56 kW, and less than 75 kW 1. Oct. 2015 5.0 0.19 0.4 0.02 0.50
at or above 75 kW, and less than 130 kW 1. Oct. 2015 5.0 0.19 0.4 0.02 0.50
at or above 130 kW, and less than 560 kW 1. Oct. 2014 3.5 0.19 0.4 0.02 0.50
Current regulation for Special vehicles engines fueled by gasoline or LPG

Last updated: September 16, 2021

The emission regulation for special vehicles fueled by gasoline or LPG has been introduced from 2007, which has been recommended by the Central Environment Council to introduce as the emission regulation for special motor vehicles and non-road special motor vehicles by its sixth report to the Minister of the Environment on June 2003.

The recommendation can been found in paragraph 2.2.and 2.3 of the following report published by CEC.

  CEC sixth report, June 30, 2003

Power ranges (kW) and test mode Applied from Limits (g/kWh)
CO HC NOX
Special vehicles and non-road special vehicles fueled by gasoline or LPG (Steady 7-mode) at or above 19 kW, and less than 560 kW 1. Oct. 2007 20 0.6 0.6

In the fourteenth report prepared by the Central Environment Council (CEC) on August 19, 2020, the results of the study includes three topics and the second topic is relating to the special motor vehicles fueled by gasoline or LPG, in which three amendments have been recommended by CEC, those are the introduction of transient test cycle, the amendment of the emission limits and the prohibition of the release of the blow-by gas into the atmosphere. The followings are the documents in English on the fourteenth report and its related information prepared by the Ministry

On August 5, 2021, the amendment of Announcement prescribing the limit values of the exhaust emissions from the motor vehicles and its test modes1) has been published on Gazette of Japan under the authority based on the provisions of Article 19, Paragraph 1 of Air Pollution Control Law. The main items for LSI in this amendment are the change of the emission limits and the introduction of new test modes, which are in line with CEC report shown above and is effective on the date of its publication. The following table shows the requirements applied this amendment. The contents of this amendment for special vehicles could be found in Announcement No. 52 of 2021 by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) published in the Gazette of Japan dated on August 5, 2021, which is available by the following link. Announcement No.53 of 2021 has been also published in the Gazette of Japan dated on same date for non-road special vehicles. The limit values and test cycles are as same as that for special vehicles and therefore the copy of Announcement No.53 of 2021 has not been attached here.

Remarks;1) the English translation of the title for this announcement has not yet informed by MOE and the title with underline shown above is not the formal English title but has been prepared merely for the sake of explanation.

  Page 20 - 81,Extra Issue No.181 on August 5, 2021, Gazette of Japan (in Japanese)

The further details on the test procedure, certification and the applicability remain to be published by the amendment of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) under the authority based on the provision by Road Vehicles Act. Therefore the column for the introduction date has not yet specified as shown in the following table.

Power ranges (kW) and test mode Introduction date Limits (g/kWh)
CO HC NOX
Special vehicles and non-road special vehicles fueled by gasoline
or LPG (7-mode Steady or 7-mode Ramped Modal Cycle and LSI-transient Cycle)
at or above 19 kW, and less than 560 kW Not yet
specified
15 0.6 0.3

The control system of the low emission construction machines by MLIT

Corrigenda: September 16, 2021

At the construction works directly controlled by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, MLIT, it is fundamentally requested to use the registered machines by the registration system of the low emission construction machines. The applicable construction machines are that are powered by diesel engines at or above 8 kW. The details of this registration system have been specified by the Notifications by MLIT.

Machineries to be installed Land-use non-road machineries Motor vehicle
Transportable (Handheld or Non-handheld) Never operated on public road May be operated on public road
19 < kW 19 ≥ kW 19 < kW 19 ≥ kW
Legislative control no no Act for NSMV no Motor Vehicles Act Motor Vehicles Act
Setting limits no no Air pollution Control Law no Air pollution Control Law Air pollution Control Law
Registration system of low emission construction machines diesel > 8kW diesel > 8kW diesel
Voluntary regulation of LEMA applied applied no applied no no
Except engine applied in Registration system

Note:
=The colored cells show the engine, whose limits are specified based on Air Pollution Control Law and which are controlled by either "Motor Vehicles Act" or "Act on Regulation, Etc. of Emissions from Non-road Special Motor Vehicle". In the above table, the latter is abbreviated to Act for NCMV.
=The colored cells show the engine to be applicable to the registration system of the low emission construction machines.
=The colored cells show the engine, which are controlled by Act on Regulation, Etc. of Emissions from Non-road Special Motor Vehicle and, therefore, are not applicable to the registration system of the low emission construction machines.