The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) formulated and released the guidelines that companies are expected to follow when calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their supply chains. The guidelines reflect discussions at the study group jointly established by both ministries and opinions gathered through a public comment process.

  To mitigate global warning, an increasing number of companies follow GHG emission accounting, reporting and disclosing systems established under the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures or GHG emission accounting and reporting systems under some municipal ordinances. However, these systems have the disadvantage of being unable to identify the companies' potential for reducing emissions through their supply chains and therefore not providing an incentive to take action to reduce emissions from external sources. At the global level, efforts to develop standards for accounting for and reporting corporate supply chain GHG emissions and to disclose information on such emissions are gathering momentum, as demonstrated by the establishment of the GHG Protocol's Corporate Value Chain(Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard.

  Against this background, METI and MOE developed national guidelines for calculating emissions throughout a supply chain. By assessing their "Supply-chain emissions", companies can identify major sources of emissions and the processes that have a large potential for emission reductions in their supply chains. This is expected to allow them to implement efficient reduction measures and consequently enhance competitiveness while increasing the transparency of operations. Users of the Guidelines are also expected to influence their supply chain partners by providing emissions information, foster mutual understanding and collaboration with them, and promote GHG emission reductions through a concerted effort. By quantifying and disclosing "Supply-chain emissions", they can also improve accountability to their stakeholders. The Guidelines take account of both existing domestic efforts and international developments and present to Japanese companies the concepts by which to account for "Supply-chain emissions". Industry-specific guides are being developed and reviewed for some sectors based on the Guidelines.

  The Ministry of the Environment has prepared guidelines that apply to all industries and form the basis for "Supply-chain emissions" accounting in Japan (Basic Guidelines on Accounting for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Throughout the Supply Chain, Ver. 1.0, March 2012) after obtaining the views of persons in a variety of industries. Guidelines are provided for the logistics industry in particular on the scope of accounting, accounting methods, and important points related to accounting, with specific examples.

  In addition, explanations by industry are to be prepared for the respective industries in accordance with this basic approach.