How to Practice Voluntary Control

Under the voluntary control measures by the VCCI Council, the member is obliged to conduct MME (multimedia equipment) testing to verify conformity with emission (interference) standards prior to shipment of a product on the Japan market. This conformance test must use measurement facilities registered to the VCCI Council. After designating the MME class and submitting the conformity confirmation report, the member must ship the product with the prescribed indication on both the equipment and instruction manual.
The VCCI Council will conduct market sampling tests on reported equipment to confirm their conformity with VCCI regulations.
The flow of the voluntary control described above is shown in the figure below.

Categorization of Equipment

MMEs is classified as either of the two classes, "Class A multimedia equipment (hereinafter, Class A equipment)" and "Class B multimedia equipment (hereinafter, Class B equipment)" depending on the environment in which they are used.

"Class B equipment"

Class B equipment is equipment that satisfies the Class B limits. Class B equipment is primarily intended for use in residential environments and is intended to provide adequate protection for broadcast services. The broadcast receiver equipment is a Class B equipment.

"Class A equipment"

Class A equipment is any equipment (other than Class B) that meets the Class A limits.

Confirmation of Conformity

Members must follow VCCI-CISPR 32 “Technical Requirements” established by the VCCI Council for the requirements including limits of disturbance generated by MME, measurement methods, and measurement facilities. Therefore, members are required to verify technical requirement conformity and submit a report as indicated below.

1. Confirmation of Conformity with Technical Requirements
   Members must follow VCCI-CISPR 32 “Technical Requirements” established by the VCCI Council for the requirements including limits of disturbance generated by MME, measurement methods, and measurement facilities. A member shipping MME shall in advance measure emissions from the subject equipment in accordance with VCCI-CISPR 32 using the measurement facilities registered to the VCCI Council and, upon confirming the conformity with the disturbance limits, shall compile a test report prior to shipment.
2. Registration of Product Conformity
   A member placing MME on the market must in advance confirm the product conformity of the subject MME and report the confirmation results to the VCCI Council. by using the VCCI Council's Product Conformity Registration System, and receive a notification of acceptance from the VCCI Council.

Note: It takes approximately one week to issue the “Acceptance of Conformity Report.”

Marking on Equipment

Members must put the statement and/or the mark shown below on equipment that they have registered., Class A equipment shall bear the wording and/or mark, and Class B equipment shall bear the mark. The wording of the statement may be regarded as an example but shall include the Japanese text either exactly the same as the example or substantially similar to the example. For products with display means, “electronic display” may be implemented instead of the statement and/or the mark.

(1) For each shipment of Class A equipment that has been registered, Members shall put the statement and/or the mark shown below at a readily visible position on each equipment.

(The color of the mark is unrestricted.)

(2) For each shipment of Class B equipment that has been registered, Members shall put the mark shown below at a readily visible position on each equipment.

(The color of the mark is unrestricted.)

Scope of Voluntary Control

The Voluntary Control measures of the VCCI Council apply to multimedia equipment (MME), which is placed on the Japanese market. “MME” has the following definition.

MME definition

MME is information technology equipment, audio equipment, video equipment, broadcast receiver equipment, entertainment lighting control equipment or combinations of these. Functions are related to basic technologies incorporated in the MME, such as displaying, recording, processing, controlling, reproducing, transmitting, or receiving single medium or multimedia content. The content may be data, audio or video, either individually or in combination. MME may have more than one primary function. For example, the primary functions of a basic television set include broadcast reception, audio reproduction and display.

However, the following equipment may be exempted from these Rules:

1. MME for which the function of information technology equipment is not deemed its primary function or is not included.
2. MME subject to other standards or laws equivalent in objective to this document in Japan, even if the definition of MME applies. Such MME includes all radio-only equipment whose primary function is radio transmission and reception as stipulated in the Radio Law as well as electrical appliances stipulated in the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law.
3. Equipment for which the emission requirements in the frequency range subject to this document are explicitly defined in other CISPR standards (except CISPR 13 and CISPR 22). Such equipment includes MME dedicated to industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) purposes or dedicated to in-vehicle purposes.
4. Equipment for use in telecommunications facilities to be installed only inside buildings controlled by telecommunications common carriers who provide such facilities and services.
5. Equipment for use in broadband power line communication facilities (in the frequency range 2 MHz to 30 MHz prescribed in Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Law, Article 44-2-2).
6. MME whose power consumption is 6 nW or less.

Companies and organizations that support the objectives of the Council and wish to participate and cooperate in voluntary control are required to first become a member of the Council. Said companies and organizations should first submit a "Membership Application" form to the Council Secretariat. If you would like to be a member, please refer to the Membership Guide and Membership Application Page.