Japan Harmonizes Clothing Care Symbols with ISO Standards

On December 1, 2016, Japan will harmonize textile and clothing care labels with internationally recognized symbols.

Under the Household Products Quality Labelling Law, care labeling standard JIS L0001-2014 will synchronize Japanese clothing labels with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3758:2012 “Textile – Care Labelling Code Using Symbols”.

The new standard includes five basic textile care symbols, which will be displayed in the order of washing, bleaching, ironing and professional textile care treatments of dry and wet cleaning, along with a number of additional symbols. This increases the number of care symbols used in Japanese garments from 22, under JIS L0217-1995, to 41, under JIS L0001-2014.

In addition to harmonizing the use of care label symbols with internationally recognized standards, the new regulations will effectively replace words with symbols. Word will now only be acceptable on care labels when they supplement the information given by the symbol. The new care labels must be visible, indelible and easily accessible to the consumer. Stakeholders are advised to check their products are compliant with the new regulations.