VCCI Testing for Japan

VCCI is the Voluntary Control Council for Interference, the Japanese industry body that sets emission limits for multimedia equipment. Testing is to VCCI-CISPR 32, and a product that conforms carries the VCCI mark. The scheme is voluntary in name and close to mandatory in practice, because Japanese distributors and retail channels expect the mark before they will take a product.

Two things make VCCI different from the approvals a North American manufacturer is used to. There is no government regulator issuing a grant, and there is no certification body signing a certificate. The manufacturer declares conformity itself, and the Council polices the market afterwards by buying products and retesting them.

This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth being plain about the split.

You file. Only a VCCI Council member can submit a conformity notice or display the mark. Membership is annual and gives you access to the Council’s registration system, where you upload the report and wait for acceptance before shipping. A test lab cannot join on your behalf and cannot file for you.

We measure. The Council does not accept emissions data from anywhere. It has to come from a measurement facility registered with the Council, and the facility earns that registration in its own right, separately from any product. Registration is granted per measurement type rather than as a single blanket approval, which is why a facility can be registered for one measurement and not another.

Megalab holds three registrations, which together cover every emissions measurement VCCI-CISPR 32 calls for:

• G-20174: radiated emissions
• C-20132: powerline conducted emissions
• T-20133: telecommunication port conducted emissions

We are also ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by A2LA, which is one of the accreditation bodies the VCCI Council recognizes for overseas facilities. Our scope covers VCCI V-3, V-4 and VCCI-CISPR 32:2016. Details are on our accreditations page.

VCCI-CISPR 32 splits multimedia equipment into two classes by where the product is sold, and the class decides the limits.

Class B is for residential environments, which in the Japanese scheme includes anywhere the product might be used within ten meters of a domestic radio receiver. The limits are the tighter of the two.

Class A is for commercial, industrial and business environments. The limits are more relaxed, and the trade is a mandatory warning statement in the manual and on the packaging telling the user the product may cause interference in a residential setting.

Picking Class A to buy headroom is a decision with a commercial cost, because the warning follows the product into the channel. Where a design sits close to the Class B limit, a pre-scan is usually cheaper than committing to Class A and finding out later that a retailer will not stock it. Our EMC pre-scan runs the same setup without the formal reporting.

The measurements are the ones CISPR 32 defines, run in the configuration and cable arrangement the standard sets out.

1. Radiated disturbance. Measured in our semi-anechoic chamber from 30 MHz upward. The upper frequency depends on the highest internal frequency in the product and reaches 6 GHz for the fastest equipment, which is the top of our accredited range.
2. Mains port conducted disturbance. 150 kHz to 30 MHz on the AC supply, using a line impedance stabilization network. This applies to anything drawing mains power. A product running only on battery or low voltage DC does not need it.
3. Telecommunication port conducted disturbance. Common mode measurement on wired network and telecom ports, using an impedance stabilization network suited to the port type.

Which of the three apply is decided by the ports on your product rather than by preference. A mains powered device with an Ethernet port needs all three. A battery powered device with no wired ports needs only the first.

Setup drives the result more than most people expect. Cable routing, the position of the sample, the operating mode chosen and which peripherals are connected all move the numbers, and VCCI V-4 exists specifically to constrain those variables so a result is reproducible between facilities. We set the sample up to V-4 and record the arrangement in the report, which is what lets the Council repeat the measurement during market surveillance and reach the same answer.

Not directly, and it is worth settling before you budget for the work.

The underlying measurements overlap heavily. CISPR 32 is the same base standard behind EN 55032 for Europe, and FCC Part 15 Subpart B covers similar ground for the United States with its own limits and procedures. The physics is shared. The paperwork is not.

What VCCI requires is data from a facility registered with the Council, reported against VCCI-CISPR 32 and its limits. A report from a lab holding no VCCI registration does not become acceptable by being technically sound. In practice, if a product is heading to North America and Japan, the efficient route is to measure once at a facility registered for both, which is the case here, and issue the reports from one set of data where the standards allow it.

Where a product has already been tested elsewhere, send us the report. We can usually tell you which measurements transfer and which have to be repeated before you commit to anything.

VCCI covers unintentional emissions from multimedia equipment. Two neighbouring cases come up often enough to name.

Medical electrical equipment follows JIS T 0601-1-2, Japan’s adoption of the IEC 60601-1-2 EMC collateral. That is on our scope and runs in the same lab, so a medical device heading to Japan does not need a second supplier. See our IEC 60601 medical device testing page.

Products with a radio take a separate route. A transmitter is approved under the Japanese radio rules rather than through VCCI, and the two run in parallel rather than one standing in for the other. Tell us the radio and we will confirm what applies.

• Product type and what it does
• Power: mains, battery or DC, and the supply voltage
• Every port on the product, and whether any are network or telecom ports
• Dimensions and weight
• Operating modes, and which one exercises the product hardest
• Whether you are targeting Class A or Class B, or want us to advise
• Any existing FCC, ISED or CE test reports
• Whether you also need Japan radio approval or JIS T 0601-1-2

Send us the details and we will confirm the requirement and quote it.