Assessing Policy Reach: Japan's Chemical Policy Reform in Response to the EU's REACH Regulation

This article focuses on the regulatory interactions fuelled by the European Union (EU)’s ‘soft power’ regarding regulatory policies. Such a phenomenon is also described as ‘globalisation of European regulations’. It has been argued that the regulatory policies of non-EU countries are influenced by European regulation, and may end up mirroring European policy. This article attempts to analyse such a voluntary policy adaptation to Europe, based upon a study of the EU’s new chemical regulation, known as ‘REACH’. This article focuses on a recent Japanese chemical policy reform and analyses how the Japanese reform interacts with REACH. However, the Japanese case analysis has found that the influence of REACH upon the Japanese reform was limited, and this article seeks to explain why Japan hesitated to move toward the REACH-type policy reform. Finally, the article concludes with implications for other Asian countries experiencing the impact of REACH.