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Submission and opening of tenders

Once all documents for the tender have been prepared, they must be sealed and submitted at the location specified in the tender notice and/or tender documentation. Documents can be submitted in person by tenderers themselves or by representative, or by mail.

In general, there is little English information made available on licenses and permissions in Japan.  In particular, if a company is active in sectors such as construction or the medical sector, licenses will be required. It is advisable to orientate at an early stage what licenses are required. 

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism gives a general outline regarding the construction license system in Japan.

General overview

For a general overview on Japanese standards and various resources see the description under Legal & Regulatory Issues » Standards.

Practical Information

 The Japan Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), a body attached to METI and in charge of surveying and deliberating on industrial standards, offers searchable databases on its website. They are however in Japanese.

To ensure the quality and safety of goods and services provided to Japanese government entities, in quite a few categories certain standards need to be met or licenses obtained. In particular, in tenders where a product is produced specifically for the procuring entity suppliers have to meet industrial standards.  

Given the large diversity in the goods and services that are procured by government entities, it rather difficult to give a concise description of the contents of tender documentation. For the procurement of relatively simple items, the documentation can be short, but for complex items, the tender documentation can consist of hundreds of pages of text. 

In case of the procurement of complex goods or services, the procuring entity will organize an explanatory meeting, usually within days after the invitation to tender.  Please note that the information whether an explanatory meeting will be organized, is usually not listed in the English summary of the tender notice. 

For foreign suppliers with no Japanese language capabilities, the English language summary of the tender notice is the first source of information to decide whether there is a business case to tender for a contract.  Below explains in more detail what kind of information is provided, and perhaps more important, the information that is not provided in the English summary.

A number of national government organisations have established mailing list services to announce their calls for tender.  The mailing lists are almost exclusively in Japanese. Listed below are links to registration pages for procurement information mailinglists at a number of government organisations. 

Early announcement of tenders is one of the voluntary measures taken by the Japanese government to facilitate access for foreign companies in the Japanese public procurement market.  As early as possible at the beginning of the fiscal year, in the April-May period procurement of large-scale goods and services are publics in the “Kanpo” Government Gazette.  Early announcement of tenders is largely limited to national government entities and affiliated organizations.