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Obligations for Stakeholders 

Once officially designated as Class I Specified Chemical Substances, these chemicals will be restricted from being manufactured, imported, and used, as well as used in products that include them, will be prohibited. They can only be utilized under essential circumstances or when a specific permit is obtained. 

Comment Period and Enforcement Dates 

Stakeholders are invited to comment on this draft till 2 November 2025. The ministries has not published the enforcement dates yet, but implementation is scheduled to start in the fiscal year 2026. 

On 26 September 2025, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) announced the addition of 149 new chemicals to the Existing and New Chemical Substances (ENCS) List. The ENCS list is regulated under the Japan’s Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA).  

On the same day, an official ISHA Notice was published and the Workplace Safety Portal of the MHLW was updated with information on the added substances. The update includes ISHA official gazette serial numbers, chemical names and structural formula are published on the MHLW's. The list of new chemical substances can be accessed here. 

Previous Update in June 2025    

This is the second update in 2025. Earlier, on 27 June 2025, the MHLW added 119 new chemical substances to the ENCS. More information on that update can be found here.   

Following this addition, there are now 72,869 entries in the Existing and New Chemical Substances (ENCS) list. Under ISHA, Japanese businesses that manufacture or import substances listed in ENCS are required to notify the MHLW. The name of the new chemical substance and information about its risk assessment must be included in the notification in order to protect the health of industrial personnel handling chemical substances in the workplace.