Message from the President

I am Akihiko Kojima, who has recently assumed the position of President. I have built my career as an engineer in the steel industry for approximately 30 years. From now on, as a president of a certification body, I am committed to contributing, albeit modestly, to the development of Japan's industry.

More than 30 years have passed since the ISO management system certification scheme was introduced to Japan, and it has become widely recognized and established in our society as a symbol of trust and as a mechanism for maintaining and improving quality. ISO standards, which initially focused on product quality, have expanded to encompass quality management of overall business activities including service sectors, covering a broad range of industrial sectors. Furthermore, they have evolved and developed into standards that can address different aspects such as environment and information security, and I believe their roles and expectations will continue to grow in the future.

In such circumstances above mentioned, JIC Quality Assurance Co., Ltd. [JICQA] was established in October 1992 with the support of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and major steel companies as Japan's first private enterprise engaged in certification business. Our company has a distinguished history as a pioneer of ISO management system certification body in Japan, having achieved the first registrations for ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environment), truly represents a privately-led certification body pioneer. Currently, we have expanded our certification aspects beyond quality and environment management system to include information security, occupational health and safety, aerospace, food safety, and automotive industry (IATF 16949). Furthermore, our service domains extend broadly, including JIS certification, greenhouse gas emission verification, third-party verification and assurance of sustainability reports, and audits using individual standards to meet specific needs, and that enables us to serve virtually all industrial sectors.

One distinctive feature of our company, namely our unique practice within the certification industry is that we employ and train the majority of our auditors . Our auditors comprise professionals from various industrial fields including steel, non-ferrous metals, heavy industry, automotive, construction, electrical, chemical, information technology, finance, services, audit firms, and the Ministry of Defense. Our strength lies in the fact that our employee auditors are specialists in their respective fields, possessing specialized knowledge and extensive practical experience cultivated in their previous careers, and through our time-intensive training. Therefore we can provide high-quality audits. By having the same auditors conduct audits over multiple years, we continuously provide valuable observations to our customers and contribute to their continuous improvements. In this way, by our distinctive characteristics of broad standards coverage, employee system from diverse human resources, high-quality audits, and multiple year audit continuity, we can provide comprehensive services and are evaluated by our customers as a highly reliable certification body.

While ISO management systems have become widespread and contributed to improve and enhance the quality of our customers' products and services, the internal and external environment surrounding Japan changes daily, and the pace of such changes has been accelerating rapidly. JICQA will continue to respond to our customers' needs and values as they face both risks and opportunities in this changing environment. We will strive to continue providing services that meet their expectations.