Conformity assessment and mutual recognition of testing and certification

Committee:
Railways
status:
No progress
Published:
Japan is an active participant in various international standardisation bodies, but there is very little movement towards applying common standards across its domestic railway market. Moreover, Japan lacks a common conformity assessment scheme such as cross acceptance for this industry. The EBC believes that it will be mutually beneficial for Japanese operators to work together with the European operators and suppliers to identify common requirements in new technologies such as 5G communication, train autonomy, AI/IoT (Artificial Intelligence/Internet of Things) for condition-based maintenance (CBM) and cyber security.

Recommendations

  • Japan should establish a working group to identify minimum common requirements acceptable to both private and public railway operators depending on the needs for railway service from society. This could be different for urban networks compared to non-urban networks, and for high speed lines compared to conventional lines and subways.
  • EU and Japan shall continue the work in the technical committee set up by the EPA to further harmonise standards and regulations.
  • The Japanese authorities should take a more active role in setting up a conformity assessment scheme.
  • There should be a system for using certifications and tests results from one operator when marketing products to another operator, to avoid complete or partial repetition of testing already conducted.