Japan export control list update Wassenaar 2008

On December 9, 2009, Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") posted the planned update list of export control list to seek public comment. This list update reflect the Wassenaar Arrangement as of December 2008.

The list change is broad range of goods/technologies, including most of Wassenaar Categories 1 - 9. All member states of Wassenaar Arrangement will reflect this list change. For example, Hong Kong already announced the list update in November. US will announce EAR update as of December 11 in Federal Register.

For computer industry guy, the following changes may be interested in. This is just a part of many changes. (Please be noted below is my translation to equivalent ECCN and language. Japanese category number is totally different from Wassenaar style numbering, and no English translation of the control list is provided.)

• 4D001.b.1/4E001.b.1 “Software” and “Technology” specially designed or modified for the “development” or “production” of “Digital computers” having an ”Adjusted Peak Performance” (“APP”) exceeding 0.04 Weighted TeraFLOPS (WT), à relaxation of control to 0.1APP
  
  
• 5A002. the relaxation of control over certain wireless personal area network equipment devices with published or commercial cryptographic standard (including certain wireless routers and wireless printers, etc.) Following exemptions notes are added.
  
  (h) Equipment specially designed for the servicing of portable or mobile radiotelephones and similar client wireless devices that meet all the provisions of the Cryptography Note (Note 3 in Category 5, Part 2), where the servicing equipment meets all of the following:
  1. The cryptographic functionality of the servicing equipment cannot easily be changed by the user of the equipment;
  2. The servicing equipment is designed for installation without further substantial support by the supplier; and
  3. The servicing equipment cannot change the cryptographic functionality of the device being serviced;
  
  (i) Wireless "personal area network" equipment that implement only published or commercial cryptographic standards and where the cryptographic capability is limited to a nominal operating range not exceeding 30 metres according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

The effective date of this list update is not yet announced, but normally in practice, it is a few months after the announcement for public comment.

(Source: http://search.e-gov.go.jp/servlet/Public?CLASSNAME=Pcm1010&BID=595109088&OBJ )