Enhanced Cooperation between METI and Retailers Relating to Product Safety

1. METI has been making efforts to ensure the safety of household appliance products with the support of the retailers that sell them. Member retailers have also been making efforts for such safety through their own actions, such as those taken after presenting a product recall notice, including sending letters about recalled products to purchasers using information they possess on the purchasers and putting up posters at stores.

2. METI hereby announces that it and member retailers decided to enhance their cooperation, including the creation of a close contact system, for the purpose of facilitating actions and other responses to ensure the safety of such products, such as providing correct information on the ensured safety of such products.

   Note: Members of the Meeting of Large Household Appliance Retailers (as of June 2012):
   EDION Corporation, K's Holdings Corporation, Kojima Co., Ltd., Joshin Denki Co., Ltd., Nojima Corporation, Bic Camera Inc., BEST DENKI Co., Ltd., Yamada-Denki Company, Limited, Yodobashi Camera Company, Limited

3. The enhanced cooperation will help METI to smoothly provide information on recalled products as well as other product information to member retailers in readily-accessible forms, such as electronic media, and also will help member retailers to make further efforts to quickly provide consumers with such information based on information from METI, through the support of manufacturers and importers.

4. To ensure the safety of consumers, METI will further cooperate with member retailers and consider developing such cooperation with sellers concerned as well as provide and disseminate correct information to consumers on products, such as recall or warnings on products.

Note: Members of the Meeting of Large Household Appliance Retailers (As of June 2012) EDION Corporation, K's Holdings Corporation, Kojima Co., Ltd., Joshin Denki Co., Ltd., Nojima Corporation, Bic Camera Inc., BEST DENKI Co., Ltd., Yamada-Denki Company, Limited, Yodobashi Camera Company, Limited

June 8, 2012

Product Safety Division, Commerce and Distribution Policy Group