On 31 July 2025, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and Ministry of Environment (MOE) jointly announced the addition of 157 new substances to the General Chemical Substance List under the Chemical Substance Control Law (CSCL). It has been determined that six of these substances pose major risks to both human health and the environment.

Previous update in July 2024

Earlier on 31 July 2024, Japan added 164 chemicals to the general chemical substance list & identified 3 chemicals with high toxicity profile. More details can be found here.

Classification of General Chemical Substances

Chemicals that are first submitted to the government for assessment and then monitored for five years are considered new substances, according to the CSCL. Chemicals that do not pose a significant risk are added to the list as "newly announced substances" and given the designation of general chemical substances following this evaluation period.

Notification Obligations for Manufacturers and Importers

Businesses must notify METI if they produce or import general chemicals in amounts of one tonne or more throughout the year. Even after these chemicals are included to the list of general chemical substances, this requirement guarantees that they are continuously reviewed.

Addition of Highly Toxic Chemicals

Six of the recently added chemicals have been identified as extremely toxic:

• Mixture of (1-)ammonium diaquabis(oxalato-kappa(2)O,O') oxidoniobate and (1-)ammonium diaquabis(oxalato-kappa(2)O,O') oxidoniobate-water(1/n)
• Disilver ethynediide
• Bis[4-({6-[(prop-2-enoyl)oxy]hexyl}oxy)phenyl] 2-{[(1,3-benzothiazol-2-yl)(6-{[(naphthalen-1-yl)acetyl]oxy}hexyl)hydrazinylidene]methyl}-1,4-phenylene bis[(1r,4r)-cyclohexane-1,4-dicarboxylate]
• 5,11,14,17-Tetrakis[(dimethylsilyl)oxy]-1,3,5,7,9,11,14,17-octaphenyltricyclo[7.3.3.3(3,7)]octasiloxane
• 4-[1-(2,3-Dimethylphenyl)ethyl]-1H-imidazole
• Copolymer of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl 2-methylprop-2-enoate / N-benzyl-N,N-dimethyl-2-[(2-methylprop-2-enoyl)oxy]ethan-1-aminium chloride (It is limited that the content of the components having molecular weight less than 1,000 is 1% or less.)

Assessment results published

Additionally METI released the assessment results of these chemicals for bioaccumulation and degradability on the same day they were added to the list. The list of added chemicals can be found here.