What Is Japan's Export Trade Control Order? A One-Page Map of Appended Tables 1 and 2

Hello, this is Ryuta Hamamoto from TIMEWELL. When I take export-control questions, a surprising number of people are stuck before they even reach the door. "Which law, and which table, am I supposed to be looking at?" However carefully you walk someone through the export classification procedure, if the overall shape of the underlying cabinet order isn't in their head, every individual step ends up floating in mid-air.

That foundation is the Export Trade Control Order, usually shortened to the Export Order. Japanese export control starts the moment you check whether your goods appear in the lists, called appended tables, that this cabinet order provides. The trouble is that there are 12 of them once you count the sub-numbered ones, and with similar numbers sitting side by side, newcomers almost always get lost. The same goes for U.S. compliance teams buying from Japanese suppliers who are handed a Japanese classification and asked to make sense of it.

I wrote this article so you can carry the whole Export Order around as a single map. I won't go into spec values. The goal is to grasp two pillars, Appended Table 1 for licenses and Appended Table 2 for approvals. Once you have those, the practical work gets much clearer. For this October 2026 update I went back through the current text on e-Gov, the Japanese government's statute database, provision by provision, and fixed several things I had gotten wrong in the first version.

The 30-second version. The Export Trade Control Order (Cabinet Order No. 378 of 1949) implements Article 48 of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA). Its 12 appended tables say which goods need a license or an approval from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry when exported to which destinations. Appended Table 1 is the national-security license list (items 1–15 are list controls, item 16 is the catch-all), and Appended Table 2 is the approval list that implements treaties and UN sanctions. The other ten tables handle sanctions-specific goods, destination groups, and exceptions for small values and personal baggage. As of October 4, 2026, the version in force is the one effective June 5, 2026, but that change only touched a penalty article number in Article 14. The last amendment that changed controlled items took effect February 14, 2026.¹

The Export Trade Control Order is the cabinet order that makes FEFTA work

The Export Trade Control Order was promulgated on December 1, 1949, as Cabinet Order No. 378 of 1949. Its short name, the Export Order, is registered as the official abbreviation in the e-Gov statute database.¹ It is not a standalone law. It is a subordinate set of rules whose job is to make the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (Act No. 228 of 1949), known as FEFTA, actually operate.

FEFTA works like the constitution of Japanese export control and sets only the broad framework. Its Article 48 is the provision behind export licenses and approvals. The text of the Act, though, doesn't contain a list of which goods are covered or which countries are targeted. The Export Order fills that gap with its appended tables. The Act says "we regulate," and the cabinet order specifies "these items, for destinations like these." That two-tier design is the skeleton of the whole system.

In practice the rules go deeper than two tiers. METI's own chart of the export control legal system stacks them like a pyramid: the Act at the top, then the cabinet order, then ministerial ordinances, public notices, and circulars.² Two ordinances matter most. The Goods and Technologies Ordinance (MITI Ordinance No. 49 of 1991) supplies the numbers behind each "specification set by ordinance of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry" in Appended Table 1.³ The Export Trade Control Regulations (MITI Ordinance No. 64 of 1949) set out the application forms and procedures for licenses and approvals.⁴ Below those, public notices define the finer scope of covered goods, and the circular on the operation of the Export Order explains how terms are read and how forms are filled in. The working sequence is simple once you see it. Use the appended tables to find the likely item, the Goods and Technologies Ordinance to see whether your specs cross the control threshold, and the Regulations and circulars to run the procedure.

The other thing people mix up is the Foreign Exchange Order (Cabinet Order No. 260 of 1980).⁵ The Export Order controls exports of goods. The Foreign Exchange Order controls the provision of technology, such as drawings, manufacturing know-how, and software, and it rests on FEFTA Article 25 rather than Article 48.⁶ Its technology table uses the same item numbers as Appended Table 1, written as "technology for the design, manufacture, or use of the goods listed in item X of Appended Table 1 of the Export Trade Control Order." Shipping hardware points you to the Export Order. Sending drawings or data points you to the Foreign Exchange Order. This article is about the first one.

So make a habit of reading the Export Order alongside FEFTA Article 48, which has three paragraphs and therefore three doors. Paragraph 1 is the basis for licenses, implemented by Article 1 of the Export Order and Appended Table 1. Paragraph 2 is the so-called inform provision, which lets the Minister impose a license requirement on exports of particular goods to destinations outside the specified regions when that is needed to make paragraph 1 effective. Paragraph 3 is the basis for approvals, used to implement international commitments and similar goals, and implemented by Article 2 of the Export Order and Appended Table 2.⁶ Different paragraphs, different purposes. Mix them up here and every later judgment drifts. If you want to see first whether your own program covers these doors, our free export compliance readiness check maps the gaps in about three minutes.

The full map: how Appended Table 1 (license) and Appended Table 2 (approval) split the work

The Export Order has 12 appended tables. The number sounds intimidating, but in practice you meet two of them first, Appended Table 1 and Appended Table 2. You can treat the other ten as supporting tables for sanctions-specific goods, destination groups, and exceptions.

The single most important point is that Appended Tables 1 and 2 are not two similar lists that happen to have different numbers. They are separate regimes with different legal bases, different purposes, and even different names for the procedure you go through. Because the numbers are adjacent, they look like siblings, and that is exactly where most people stumble. The table below puts them side by side.

Aspect	Appended Table 1 (license)	Appended Table 2 (approval)
In one line	A national-security list (goods that could be diverted to military use)	A list for honoring international commitments and similar goals
Legal basis	Article 1 of the Export Order + FEFTA Article 48(1) (item 16 to Group A uses 48(2))	Article 2 of the Export Order + FEFTA Article 48(3)
Procedure	A license from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry	An approval from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
What it controls	Items 1–15 are list controls, item 16 is the catch-all	Domestic implementation of CITES, the Montreal Protocol, the Basel Convention, the Minamata Convention, UN sanctions, and more
Examples	High-performance machine tools, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, carbon fiber, lasers, frequency converters	Diamonds, nuclear source materials, narcotics precursors, endangered species, cultural properties, IP-infringing goods, counterfeit currency
Destinations	Items 1–15: all regions. Item 16: all regions except Group A (the 27 countries in Appended Table 3)	Set item by item. Most say all regions, but item 34 (frozen clams and similar) applies only to the United States. North Korea, Russia, and others get extra layers through other subparagraphs of Article 2
Where the work starts	Export classification (item number checked against the Goods and Technologies Ordinance)	Confirm whether the item needs approval, and whether a treaty or another law requires its own permit

Keep this table in the corner of your mind and you won't get lost in any provision of the Export Order. If you are in Appended Table 1, you are dealing with a national-security license. If you are in Appended Table 2, you are dealing with an approval tied to an international commitment. Sorting information onto those two axes alone removes half the confusion.

Here is how all 12 tables divide the work. The headings on e-Gov list the related articles: Articles 1 and 4 for Appended Table 1, Articles 2, 4, and 12 for Appended Table 2, Articles 2 and 4 for Appended Tables 2-2 through 2-4, and Article 4 (exceptions) for everything from Appended Table 3 on. Those headings don't tell the whole story, though. Appended Table 3 is also cited in Article 1(3) and in the destination column of item 16. So the table below sorts them by what they actually do in the text.¹

Appended Table	Related articles (e-Gov heading)	What it does
1	Articles 1 and 4	Goods needing a license. Items 1–15 are list controls, item 16 is the catch-all
2	Articles 2, 4, and 12	Goods needing an approval, implementing treaties and UN sanctions
2-2	Articles 2 and 4	Goods needing approval for North Korea (luxury goods such as beef, alcohol, and perfume)
2-3	Articles 2 and 4	Goods needing approval for Belarus and Russia (including the goods in items 1–15 of Appended Table 1)
2-4	Articles 2 and 4	Ten destinations where Appended Table 2-3 goods need approval, only for transactions with parties designated by public notice
3	Article 4	Group A, 27 countries, excluded from the destination column of item 16
3-2	Article 4	Countries and regions under UN arms embargoes (10). Catch-all conditions are stricter here
3-3	Article 4	Not a list of places but a list of goods. For these items, the small-value list-control exception drops from 1 million yen to 50,000 yen
4	Article 4	Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. The small-value list-control exception cannot be used for these destinations
5	Article 4	Goods exempt from approval (free relief supplies, free commercial samples up to 2 million yen, and so on; 15 entries)
6	Article 4	Accompanied baggage, tools of the trade, and household goods of departing travelers that are exempt from approval
7	Article 4	Value thresholds for the small-value approval exception (300,000, 50,000, and 30,000 yen)

Once you have a likely item number, keep a record of the comparison. Our item check sheet for Appended Table 1 and the Foreign Exchange Order table is an Excel workbook (Japanese-language) built for pasting rows from METI's Matrix Table, comparing each control parameter with your own specs, and keeping the reasoning. It reflects the amendments effective February 14, 2026, and it is our own original format, separate from the comparison forms CISTEC publishes. Download the item check sheet (free; company name and work email required).

Appended Table 1: national-security list controls (items 1–15) and the catch-all (item 16)

Appended Table 1 is the table that Article 1(1) of the Export Order points to, implementing FEFTA Article 48(1). If you export the goods in its middle column to a destination in its right-hand column, you need a license from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. This is the front door to security export control, which in Japan mostly means list controls.

The table has two zones. Items 1 through 15 are the list controls. Weapons, of course, but also nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile items, plus dual-use goods such as high-performance machine tools, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, carbon fiber, lasers, and frequency converters, each defined item by item. Because item 3-2 sits between items 3 and 4, the table has 17 rows rather than 16. What decides the outcome is the specification, not the product name. Two products with the same name can land on opposite sides depending on whether their performance crosses the control value. For what each item covers and how to look it up, see Appended Table 1 of Japan's Export Trade Control Order, items 1–16 explained. For the line-by-line export classification procedure, see Japan export classification (gaihi hantei) in five steps.

One thing to watch: list controls don't care where the goods are going. The right-hand column of items 1–15 says "all regions," so even exports to Group A, the countries long called "white countries," still require the list-control classification itself.¹ Group A destinations get lighter procedures, such as bulk licenses, but you are never allowed to skip the classification. "They're a trusted country, so nothing is needed" is one of the most dangerous assumptions in export control.

Item 16 is the catch-all, and it works differently. Its destination column reads, in the original text, "all regions (excluding the regions listed in Appended Table 3)." When item 16 goods go to a destination outside Group A, they formally fall under the FEFTA Article 48(1) license, and then the exceptions in Article 4(1)(iii) and (iv) lift that requirement as long as neither the end-use and end-user conditions nor an individual notice from the Minister (an "inform" notice) apply. Group A sat outside this structure until the amendment effective October 9, 2025, added Article 1(3). Since then, an exporter shipping item 16 goods to Group A needs a license under FEFTA Article 48(2) if it has been notified that the goods may be diverted to a country of concern.¹

The details vary with whether the goods fall under item 16(1), a list of specific product types, or item 16(2), a broad sweep of industrial goods, and with whether the destination is a UN arms-embargoed country in Appended Table 3-2. So don't reduce it to "anything outside Group A always needs a catch-all license." The safer mental model is that list controls are a net that catches by specification, while the catch-all is a separate net that catches by end use, end user, and destination. The two are compared side by side in List controls vs. catch-all controls in Japan.

Appended Table 2: export approval to honor international commitments

Appended Table 2 is the table that Article 2(1) of the Export Order points to, implementing FEFTA Article 48(3). Subparagraph 1 says that exporting goods in its middle column to a destination in its right-hand column requires the Minister's approval. Licenses serve national security. Approvals exist so that Japan can faithfully carry out international commitments it has made and contribute to international peace. Different legal basis, different purpose, and a different table from Appended Table 1.

What the table covers tells you what it is for. Diamonds in item 1 back up the Kimberley Process. Ozone-depleting substances in item 35 correspond to the Montreal Protocol, specified hazardous wastes in item 35-2 to the Basel Convention, chemicals in item 35-3 to the Rotterdam Convention, mercury in item 35-4 to the Minamata Convention, and endangered wild fauna and flora in item 36 to CITES. On January 19, 2026, item 35-5 was added, bringing gas containing carbon dioxide that is exported for storage under the seabed abroad into the approval scheme under the London Protocol.¹⁷ In short, Appended Table 2 is how Japan enforces its international commitments at home. Japan Customs' list of export-related laws points to METI's page on goods subject to export approval as the contact for approvals.⁸⁹

It would still be a mistake to write Appended Table 2 off as "a list of farm products and animals with nothing to do with security." Nuclear source and fuel materials in item 20 and narcotics and psychotropic precursors in item 21-3 sit on the approval side too. On the cultural side, item 43 covers national treasures, important cultural properties, and natural monuments; item 44 covers goods that infringe intellectual property rights or misrepresent their origin; and item 45 covers goods that went through the Customs Act Article 69-12 recognition procedure. Add blood products, shiitake spawn, mist nets, and counterfeit or altered currency, and the range is wider than most people expect. Read the destination column as well. Item 34, frozen clams, hard clams, and mussels, applies only to exports to the United States.¹

Approvals also pull in other ministries and other laws. Article 2(2) requires the prior consent of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries before approving item 30, shiitake spawn. Article 2(3) says that waste under the Waste Management Act in item 35-2(2) and the national treasures and important cultural properties in item 43 are approved only when another law's export permit or confirmation is already in hand. And Appended Table 2 isn't the only door to an approval. Besides the subparagraphs for North Korea, Belarus, Russia, and parts of Ukraine, Article 2(1)(ii) requires approval for exporting raw materials under consignment processing contracts, where processing designated by the Minister is outsourced abroad (exempt when the total value is 1 million yen or less).¹ Two things to remember, then. An approval doesn't always stay inside METI, and there are approval requirements outside Appended Table 2. The full item list is in Appended Table 2 of Japan's Export Trade Control Order.

Tracking all of this item by item, along with which other permits apply, is more work than it looks. TRAFEED, the export-control AI agent we provide, was built to support exactly this kind of appended-table matching and to keep each country's rules current. The final call stays with your company's export control officer, but it does speed up the first round of research. You can see how it works on the TRAFEED page.

Appended Tables 2-2 through 7: sanctions, destination groups, and exceptions at a glance

After Appended Table 2 come the tables that handle sanctions, destination groups, and exceptions. Start with sanctions. Article 2(1) of the Export Order has several subparagraphs beyond the first. Subparagraph 1-2 covers Appended Table 2-2 goods to North Korea, 1-3 covers Appended Table 2-3 goods to Belarus, 1-4 covers the same table's goods to Russia, and 1-5 covers the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine designated by public notice. Each one attaches an approval requirement to a destination.¹

Appended Table 2-2 lists what needs approval for North Korea, mostly luxury goods: beef, caviar, alcohol, tobacco, perfume, cosmetics, and high-end bags. It gives domestic effect to sanctions under UN Security Council resolutions. Appended Table 2-4 names ten countries: the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. This table is easy to misread. Exports to these countries do not generally need approval. Under subparagraph 1-8, approval is required only when Appended Table 2-3 goods are exported in a direct or indirect transaction with a party the Minister has designated by public notice.¹ A country appearing in the table is a regulatory category, not a judgment about that country or the companies based there.

The best-known destination group is Appended Table 3, Group A, long called the "white countries." As of October 2026 the cabinet order lists 27 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Because Appended Table 3 is part of the cabinet order itself, adding or removing a country takes an amendment to the cabinet order. The Republic of Korea rejoined Group A on July 21, 2023, through Cabinet Order No. 232 of 2023.¹ For how Japan's Groups A through D compare with the EAR's country groups, see What is a "white country"? Japan's country groups A–D.

On the stricter side, Appended Table 3-2 lists countries and regions under UN arms embargoes (Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan), and Appended Table 4 lists Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. So what does Appended Table 4 actually decide? It marks the destinations where the small-value list-control exception can't be used. Under Article 4(1)(v), goods in items 5–13 and 15 of Appended Table 1 with a total value of 1 million yen or less need no license, unless a catch-all condition applies. Appended Table 3-3 is the list of goods for which that ceiling drops to 50,000 yen. It sits among the destination tables, but it is a list of goods, so don't read it as a list of countries.¹

Not every export carries a heavy procedure. Appended Table 5 lists goods exempt from approval, 15 entries in all, including free relief supplies, free commercial samples and promotional items worth 2 million yen or less, and personal items sent by international mail. Appended Table 6 covers accompanied baggage, tools of the trade, and household goods of people emigrating. Appended Table 7 sets the small-value approval thresholds: 300,000 yen for certain narcotics precursors such as acetone, 50,000 yen for blood products, and 30,000 yen for shiitake spawn and frozen clams.¹ All three are exceptions to approvals under Article 2. The exceptions to licenses under Article 1 are written separately, in Article 4(1). Without these exceptions, everyday small shipments simply wouldn't move.

What changed since the first version: then vs. now

The appended tables are not carved in stone. They get revised almost every year as export control regimes reach new agreements and treaties change. No new cabinet order amending the Export Order came out between the first version of this article in July 2026 and October. But the first version missed some amendments and got a few effective dates wrong. I compared the text version by version through e-Gov's amendment history, and here is the result.¹

The major recent amendment is Cabinet Order No. 376 of 2025. It was promulgated on November 14, 2025, and took effect in three steps. On November 15, 2025, the exception for goods "exported free of charge on the premise that they will be imported free of charge" (as designated by public notice) was opened to weapons in item 1 of Appended Table 1. It covers temporary exports that are expected to come back, such as firearms taken abroad for international sports competitions or protective vests taken abroad for security details.¹⁰ On December 1, 2025, item 33 of Appended Table 2, juvenile eel, was deleted. On February 14, 2026, three additions to Appended Table 1 took effect: equipment for synthesizing peptides in item 3-2(2)10; powders of alloys made of several elements in roughly equal proportions, and refractory metal powders, in item 5(20); and modules, assemblies, or equipment incorporating field programmable logic devices such as FPGAs in item 7(10-2).¹¹¹ The first version could be read as saying the eel deletion also took effect on February 14. It didn't, and I've corrected that.

A little earlier, on January 19, 2026, Cabinet Order No. 382 of 2025 added item 35-5 to Appended Table 2 and started approvals for gas containing carbon dioxide.⁷ Then on June 5, 2026, an act amending FEFTA (Act No. 30 of 2026) was promulgated and partly took effect the same day. The penalty articles shifted down by one, so Cabinet Order No. 194 of 2026 changed the reference in Article 14 of the Export Order from Article 69-6 to Article 69-7. That is why e-Gov now shows the version in force as "effective June 5, 2026," while the appended tables are identical to the February 14 version. The wording of FEFTA Article 48 didn't change, and the rest of the amending act is scheduled to take effect on January 4, 2027.¹⁶

Item	What the first version said (July 19, 2026)	Now (checked October 4, 2026)
Version of the Export Order in force on e-Gov	Not stated (the February 14 amendment was presented as the latest)	Version effective June 5, 2026 (only the Article 14 cross-reference changed)
Effective date of Cabinet Order No. 376 of 2025	February 14, 2026	Three steps: November 15, 2025; December 1, 2025; February 14, 2026
Juvenile eel	Could be read as removed on February 14	Removed December 1, 2025 (item 33 of Appended Table 2)
Item 35-5 of Appended Table 2	Not mentioned	Added January 19, 2026 (gas containing carbon dioxide)
Catch-all for Group A	Article 1(3) described without a date	Added by the amendment effective October 9, 2025
Penalty article for unlicensed exports	FEFTA Article 69-6	Article 69-7 (renumbered by the partial entry into force of Act No. 30 of 2026)
Penalty for unapproved exports	Only "a separate, lighter penalty"	Article 69-8: up to 5 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 10 million yen
Customs Act prohibited exports	Article 69-11 (wrong)	Article 69-2 (Article 69-11 covers goods that may not be imported)
Appended Table 3-3	Described as a destination group (wrong)	A list of goods with a 50,000-yen small-value ceiling
How Appended Table 3 changes	By public notice (wrong)	By amending the cabinet order (Korea: Cabinet Order No. 232 of 2023)

As of October 4, 2026, e-Gov shows no amendment to the Export Order that has been promulgated and is waiting to take effect.¹ When the next annual list update arrives, and how to read the requirements for peptide synthesizers and FPGA-based equipment, are covered in Japan Export Trade Control Order amendments. METI's page on related laws and amendments also lists the latest changes.¹² This article is the overall map, so I'll leave the amendment details there. For transactions that straddle an effective date, the rule is simple: don't ship on the old classification; reclassify under the version in force.

How to check whether your goods are covered, and where to start

Now let's turn the map into action. When you sit down with the Export Order, the first thing to do is look at your goods from both sides, Appended Table 1 and Appended Table 2. Checking one side and feeling relieved is a classic beginner's mistake.

For Appended Table 1, you classify by specification, not by product name. Narrow down the likely item, compare the control values in the Goods and Technologies Ordinance with your own specs line by line, and record the result and the reasoning in a classification record. For how to keep that evidence, Japan's certificate of non-applicability explained walks through concrete examples. At the same time, check whether the goods need approval under Appended Table 2, and whether a treaty or another law requires its own permit or confirmation: the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties for cultural items, CITES-related laws for animals and plants, and so on.

The Export Order isn't the only thing to check, either. Japan Customs publishes a list of export-related laws (the published table is dated January 2021). Alongside FEFTA's Foreign Exchange Order and Export Order, it lists the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, the wildlife protection and hunting act, the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act, the Stimulants Control Act, the Opium Act, the Plant Protection Act, the Rabies Prevention Act, the Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases in Domestic Animals, and the Road Transport Vehicle Act, each with its main items and the documents Customs checks.⁸ The table is old and some laws have since been renamed, so confirm with each ministry's current guidance. Still, seeing the Export Order as one part of that system helps you avoid gaps. And because the goods that Customs Act Article 69-2 bars from export (narcotics, child pornography, IP-infringing goods, and so on) form a separate regime, remember that both can apply to the same shipment.¹³

The consequences of getting it wrong are serious. Under FEFTA Article 69-7(1), exporting Appended Table 1 goods without a license (a violation of Article 48(1)) is punishable by up to 7 years' imprisonment, a fine of up to 20 million yen, or both. For goods that Article 14 of the Export Order identifies as especially likely to be used to develop weapons of mass destruction (most of item 1 and items 2 through 4 of Appended Table 1), Article 69-7(2) raises that to up to 10 years or 30 million yen. What about exporting Appended Table 2 goods without approval (Article 48(3)), or shipping to Group A without a license after receiving an inform notice (Article 48(2))? Those fall under Article 69-8: up to 5 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 10 million yen. In every case, if five times the value of the goods exceeds the cap, the fine can go up to five times the value. Companies face fines under Article 72 of up to 700 million yen for Article 69-7(1) violations, 1 billion yen for 69-7(2), and 500 million yen for 69-8 (again, or five times the value if higher), and Article 53 allows an administrative export ban of up to three years for unlicensed exports.⁶ The full picture, with cases, is in Japan FEFTA penalties for export violations.

"I didn't know" doesn't get anyone off in export control. So when in doubt, don't conclude on your own that something is uncontrolled. Ask your manager, your export control department, METI's consultation desk, or CISTEC. For a beginner, that one step is the best risk control I know. Once you have the map, the next move is to take your main product and actually work out which item of which appended table it sits closest to. If you'd like a system behind that matching instead of relying on one experienced person, an individual consultation on TRAFEED takes about 30 minutes and helps sort out where your program stands today.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Export Trade Control Order (the Export Order)? It is the cabinet order (Cabinet Order No. 378 of 1949) that implements FEFTA Article 48. Through 12 appended tables, it specifies which goods need a license or an approval from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry when exported to which destinations. It rests on two pillars: list and catch-all controls for national security (Appended Table 1, license), and export approvals to honor international commitments and sanctions (Appended Table 2, approval).

What is the difference between Appended Table 1 and Appended Table 2? Appended Table 1 covers goods that need a license under FEFTA Article 48(1), controlled for national security because they could be diverted to military use. Appended Table 2 covers goods that need an approval under Article 48(3), so Japan can honor commitments such as CITES and UN sanctions. The numbers are adjacent; the legal bases and purposes are not.

How does the Export Order differ from the Foreign Exchange Order? The Export Order controls exports of goods under FEFTA Article 48; the Foreign Exchange Order controls the provision of technology under Article 25. Because the Foreign Exchange Order's table uses the same item numbers as Appended Table 1, you check the Export Order when you ship hardware and the Foreign Exchange Order when you send drawings or software.

Are the Export Order and the Customs Act's "goods that may not be exported" the same? No. The Export Order is a METI license and approval scheme under FEFTA, while the prohibited exports under Customs Act Article 69-2 are stopped at the border by Customs under a different law. Both can apply at once, so check other laws too, not only the Export Order.

When did the latest amendment take effect, and what changed? The latest amendment that changed controlled items is Cabinet Order No. 376 of 2025, which took effect in three steps: November 15, 2025, December 1, 2025, and February 14, 2026. On February 14, peptide synthesizers, certain alloy powders, and modules containing FPGAs and similar devices were added to Appended Table 1. The June 5, 2026 change only updated an article number in Article 14, so there is no need to reclassify because of it.

Take the map and take the first step

We've read the Export Trade Control Order through its two pillars, the license of Appended Table 1 and the approval of Appended Table 2. One last thing I want to stress. The appended tables are a living document, updated almost every year as regimes agree on new controls and treaties change. In this update alone I had to correct several mistakes in my own first version. Nothing you memorize once is guaranteed to stay right.

That is exactly why learning to read the map matters more than memorizing it. The values and each year's amendments will change. The skeleton won't: licenses are about national security, approvals are about international commitments, and beyond them sit the exceptions and destination groups. Once that skeleton is second nature, you can follow each year's amendments without panic.

If you want something to do this week, check two things. Which item of Appended Table 1 is your main product closest to, and who in your company owns export control? Start there. Export control gets less intimidating the moment you have the map in hand.

Related articles

• Appended Table 1 of Japan's Export Trade Control Order, items 1–16 explained
• Appended Table 2 of Japan's Export Trade Control Order
• Japan Export Trade Control Order amendments (October 2026)
• What is a "white country"? Japan's country groups A–D
• Japan export classification (gaihi hantei) in five steps
• Japan's certificate of non-applicability explained
• Export-control AI agent TRAFEED

References and footnotes

Footnotes

1. e-Gov Law Search, "Export Trade Control Order (Cabinet Order No. 378 of 1949)." Articles 1, 2, 4, and 14 and Appended Tables 1–7 of the version in force from June 5, 2026, compared by TIMEWELL with each earlier version in the amendment history (Cabinet Order No. 232 of 2023; Nos. 175, 376, and 382 of 2025; No. 194 of 2026). Checked October 4, 2026. https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/324CO0000000378/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, chart of the export trade control legal system (Japanese). https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/external_economy/trade_control/01_seido/01_gaitame/download/yushutsutaikei.pdf ↩

3. e-Gov Law Search, Ministerial Ordinance specifying goods and technologies under Appended Table 1 of the Export Trade Control Order and the appended table of the Foreign Exchange Order (MITI Ordinance No. 49 of 1991). https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/403M50000400049/ ↩

4. e-Gov Law Search, "Export Trade Control Regulations (MITI Ordinance No. 64 of 1949)." https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/324M50000400064/ ↩

5. e-Gov Law Search, "Foreign Exchange Order (Cabinet Order No. 260 of 1980)," appended table. Checked October 4, 2026. https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/355CO0000000260/ ↩

6. e-Gov Law Search, "Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (Act No. 228 of 1949)." Articles 25, 48, 53, 69-7, 69-8, and 72, and the effective dates of Act No. 30 of 2026. Checked October 4, 2026. https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/324AC0000000228/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, export approval for gas containing carbon dioxide (Japanese). https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/external_economy/trade_control/boekikanri/download/export/2026/20260113_01_ex.pdf ↩ ↩²

8. Japan Customs, list of export-related laws and regulations (as of January 2021, Japanese). https://www.customs.go.jp/yusyutu/2021_1/data/export.htm ↩ ↩²

9. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, list of goods subject to export approval (Japanese). https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/external_economy/trade_control/04_kamotsu/01_export/export_kamotsu.html ↩

10. CISTEC Secretariat, commentary on the FY2025 regular list amendments (November 18, 2025, Japanese). Amendment of the free-of-charge notice for temporary exports of weapons and the effective date of each provision. https://www.cistec.or.jp/export/express/251117/12_kaisetsu.pdf ↩

11. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, "Cabinet decision on a cabinet order partially amending the Export Trade Control Order" (November 11, 2025, Japanese). https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2025/11/20251111001/20251111001.html ↩

12. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, related laws and amendment information (Japanese). https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/anpo/law00.html ↩

13. e-Gov Law Search, "Customs Act (Act No. 61 of 1954)," Articles 69-2 and 69-11. Checked October 4, 2026. https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/329AC0000000061/ ↩