Abstract
Approaches to evaluation for chemical properties efficiently have been developed internationally after the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was adopted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2006. SAICM provides a policy framework to guide efforts to achieve the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation goal that, by 2020, chemicals will be produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the- environment and human health. The New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) are the technologies that have a great potential to increase quality and efficiency in chemical assessment. However, there remain difficulties to introduce NAMs into regulations. One of chemical management laws in Japan is Chemical Substances Control Law (CSCL). Some of NAMs such as quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) model and read-across are utilized in evaluation for new chemicals and risk assessment for existing chemicals under CSCL. In addition, introduction of weight of evidence approaches under CSCL is being investigated. Internationally, application of NAMs is being discussed at OECD which is the center of the international discussions on the NAMs. Japan contributes to the discussion by providing the results of investigation in Japan. However, there are major challenges and necessary future efforts to expand the application of NAMs to regulations, such as improving reliability, accumulating practical use cases, and creating guidelines regarding NAMs.
