Following an accident suspected of being caused by children playing with lighters, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will work with other related ministries and agencies to draw consumers’ attention and intensively get across necessary information among adults involved with, caring for, educating, or in other ways dealing with or responsible for small children, in particular through kindergartens and nursery schools all over Japan.

PSC mark

1. Because of a high incidence of accidents caused by disposable lighters, METI partially revised the Enforcement Order for the Consumer Product Safety Law to regulate disposable lighters and multi-purpose lighters under control from December 27, 2010. Since September 27, 2011, businesses may not sell any lighter other than those carrying the PSC mark, which certifies that the lighter satisfies applicable safety requirements, such as the child handling resistance capability for preventing easy operation by children.

2. METI has been working with the Consumer Affairs Agency, National Police Agency, Ministry of the Environment, and other related ministries/agencies to send out an alert for preventing children from playing with lighters. However, following an accident suspected of being caused by children playing with lighters, METI has decided to get more necessary information across to prevent such accidents, as well as to promote the appropriate disposal of unnecessary lighters.

   The information aims to:
   1. Keep lighters out of the reach of children;
   2. Prevent children from playing with or handling lighters and teach them about the dangers of playing with lighters;
   3. Promote the appropriate disposal of unnecessary lighters; and
   4. Use PSC-compatible lighters that children are unable to use easily.

3. To be more specific, METI will work with related ministries/agencies, such as the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, and other related organizations to extensively distribute reminder leaflets to consumers (METI is planning to distribute approximately 500,000 copies) to send out an alert message. In particular, working with the Japan Private Kindergarten Federation, Japan National and Public Kindergarten Director Federation, and Childcare Association, METI is planning to distribute these leaflets to kindergartens and nursing schools all over Japan to intensively get across related informant among adults involved with, caring for, educating, or in other ways dealing with or responsible for small children.

• Leaflet (PDF:564KB) (in Japanese)

February 17, 2012

Product Safety Division, Commerce and Distribution Policy Group