About PS Awards

An award that recognizes companies and organizations with outstanding product safety initiatives.

The Product Safety Awards (PS Awards) began in 2007, with this year marking the 17th occasion.

This award is granted to manufacturers, importers, retailers, and other organizations proactively working toward product safety, carefully screened from among a wide range of applicants, who are recognized as “companies with outstanding product safety.”. This award is not to evaluate the safety of the products carried by companies, but rather the product safety initiatives taken by the a entire company or organization as a whole.

• In addition to evaluating the framework for ensuring product safety, emphasis is placed on particularly outstanding initiatives in assessment.
• Emphasis is placed on initiatives actually in practice under the in-house framework (systems and rules).
• This is not an evaluation of the safety of the product itself.
• Any previous product incidents and recalls are not taken into account. In fact, proactive recalls and efforts to increase recall rates are assessed highly. We will check how initiatives have been improved and what systems were built based on the experience of incidents and problems.

Winners of this award may use the Product Safety Award Logomark from the day they receive the award to advertise and publicize themselves as companies and organizations with outstanding product safety initiatives.

To establish a culture of product safety so as to create a world where product safety continuously improves.

There is a rising demand for product safety in Japan, as accidents caused by objects used in everyday life have increased. It has, therefore, become essential for Japanese companies to manufacture and sell products safely, to ensure product safety and provide safety information to consumers.

It is within this context that this award seeks to improve company awareness towards product safety, as well as establish a “culture” that positions product safety as an important value in business activities and consumer life, with the goal of building a safer and more secure world that continues to improve product safety.

Greetings

Since the start of the Product Safety Awards (PS Awards) in 2007, we have granted awards to over 180 companies and organizations and their initiatives.

What we often hear from the companies and organizations is that they applied for this award to understand the level of quality of their product safety initiatives, or so they can review their current initiatives and learn where they can go from there. If you have any product safety initiatives that have succeeded, please feel free to present them. I believe that this would be a great opportunity to understand the strengths of your company.

Oftentimes, the presentation judges and our on-site investigators are hit with just how much all the companies and organizations have put into their initiatives. Just the thought of the sheer amount of time taken and the people that have worked tirelessly to address the safety aspects of a product that most of us are not even aware of is incredible. Although an initiative focused on product safety may sound hard and unremarkable, we believe that our judging can focus attention and shed light on the efforts taken by the companies and organizations. We believe that the tireless work by all here today is the real reason a product can be safely used by everyone.

We hope that this award will allow you all to establish a system to ensure product safety and provide a great opportunity for everyone to know about your incredible product safety initiatives.

Etsuko Kugimiya, Chairperson of the Product Safety Awards Judging Committee

The Philosophy Behind the Logo

The logo for this award uses the letters "P" for product and "S" for safety as motifs and features a leaf design with a green palette to convey an image of safety. Combining those letters with an orange rectangle containing the words “Product Safety” creates a tulip shape for an image of reassurance. The rectangle has an image of stability, cleanliness, and order, with the leaves (human hands, companies) embracing the rectangular flower (product, safety) to show that they value it.

The Product Safety Award Mark (Use of the Logo)

Companies that win the Product Safety Award may use the Product Safety Logo from the moment they are awarded.

Adding the logo to company business cards, envelopes, and websites lets you promote to consumers, clients, and other stakeholders that you are a “company with outstanding product safety.” Use this logo to improve the image of your company.