Japanese Government Procurement

About Government Procurement

— Agreement on Government Procurement

The Agreement on Government Procurement, which went into effect in January 1981, sets forth rules for non-discrimination between foreign and domestic sources and for the treatment same as Japanese nationals. This Agreement was subsequently reviewed on a number of occasions, and as a result of negotiations concurrent to those of the Uruguay Round, the Agreement was amended 1) to broaden the scope of government procurement (applying to regional governments, and to a broader range of government-related entities); 2) to apply the Agreement to the procurement of services; and 3) to introduce a complaint review system pertaining to procurement procedures. This Agreement, signed by 23 countries, went into effect on January 1, 1996.

(Cabinet Office CHANS)

— Government Procurement in Japan

The Japanese Government has established voluntary measures designed to increase market access beyond that established under the WTO agreement on government procurement.

These measures include the following:
(1) Clarification of government procurement procedures.
(2) Expanded use of general tenders.
(3) Improved qualifying procedures.
(4) Improved distribution of government procurement information.

These measures cover procurement of goods and services by 21 government ministries and agencies and 77 government-related entities. The key elements of these measures are as follows:

(1) The standard minimum procurement amount has been lowered to 100,000 SDRs, which represents a greater degree of openness than that established under the WTO agreement on government procurement, which came into effect in January 1996(the standard minimum amount under this agreement is 130,000 SDRs).

(2) Independent measures (WTO plus measures) have been established for contracts exceeding 800,000 SDRs, which are not included in the agreement on government procurement. These include the provision of procurement information prior to tenders (through seminars and the like), procedures for requests to potential suppliers to submit materials for market surveys, and procedures for requests to potential suppliers to submit comments on specification proposals.

— Standard SDR Values and Yen Conversion for Government Procurement (Action Program)

The standard values for all types of voluntary measures determined in the Committee for Drawing Up and Promoting the Action Program, based on Notification No. 25 of the Ministry of Finance as published in the official gazette (Kanpo) dated 23 January 2012, have been set as follows: (Applying to procurement contracts awarded between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2014)

Note
SDR 500 equivalent to	60,000 yen
SDR 100,000 equivalent to	12 million yen
SDR 385,000 equivalent to	47 million yen
SDR 800,000 equivalent to	100 million yen
SDR 2 million equivalent to	240 million yen
SDR 5 million equivalent to	600 million yen

(Cabinet Secretariat)

* SDR (Special Drawing Right)

The value of the SDR is determined on the basis of the International Financial Statistics published by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and in accordance with the weighted average for a fixed period of the four leading currency rates among the IMF member countries, namely, the US dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen and British sterling pound. In Japan, the amount of yen equivalent of SDRs to be used for a fixed period is calculated based on this value. The SDR value has been revised every two fiscal years under the notification of the Minister of Finance since 1988.

— Updating Frequency

This database is updated based on the official gazettes (Kanpo, or Government Procurement Announcements) published by National Printing Bureau, at 15:00 on the date of the gazette publication (except for the year-end and New Year holidays). This Website will be unavailable for several minutes during the data uploading, but this is not a system failure, so please wait for a while and try to access the site again.

— The range and the estimated value of procurement contracts covered by the Agreement on Government Procurement

Threshold Values Specified in the Agreement on Government Procurement and the Japanese Voluntary Measures and Their Equivalent Values in Japanese Yen (valid from 1 April 2012 through 31 March 2014). The threshold values, in Japanese yen, are published in the government's official gazette, "Kanpo," in late January every two years.

(Ten Thousand SDR / Ten Thousand Yen)

Entities		GPA		Voluntary Measure
Entities		SDR	YEN	SDR	YEN
<Central Government Entities>
	1. Products	13	1,600	10	1,200
	2. Services Other than 3. & 4.	13	1,600	10	1,200
	3. Architectural, engineering & Other Technical Services related to 4.	45	5,800	*	*
	4. Construction Services	450	58,000	*	*
<Sub-central Government Entities>
	1. Products	20	2,500	*	*
	2. Services Other than 3. & 4.	20	2,500	*	*
	3. Architectural, engineering & Other Technical Services related to 4.	150	19,000	*	*
	4. Construction Services	1,500	194,000	*	*
<All Other Entities>
	1. Products	13	1,600	10	1,200
	2. Services Other than 3. & 4.	13	1,600	10	1,200
	3. Architectural, engineering & Other Technical Services related to 4.	45	5,800	*	*
	4. Construction Services for Entities in Group A except Japan Post	1,500	194,000	*	*
	5. Construction Services for Entities in Group B and Japan Post	450	58,000	*	*

*GPA rate is applied
(Cabinet Secretariat)

— Entities Covered by the Agreement on Government Procurement

Each procuring entity has a contact point for the provision of information and suggestions on particular government procurements.

Please see “Contact Points on Government Procurement” on “Japan's Government Procurement: Policy and Achievements Annual Report (FY 2010 version) (Cabinet Secretariat)”

Japanese Government Procurement

About Government Procurement

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