Management and Reduction of Hazardous Chemical Substances

Basic Approach
Strategy
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Basic Approach

While chemical substances enrich lives, highly hazardous substances can cause serious damage to human health and the environment when used and disposed of improperly. Countries around the world develop laws and regulations on the proper management of chemical substances aiming to prevent health hazards and negative environmental impact. These laws and regulations continue to tighten with every passing year. Companies are required to establish a system for the proper management of chemical substances and to develop, manufacture, and sell products while complying with laws and regulations.

The Nikon Group stipulates the management of chemicals and compliance with laws and regulations, environmental consideration, and pollution prevention in the Nikon Environmental Policy, establishing Realizing a Healthy and Environmentally Safe Society as one of the pillars of the Nikon Long-Term Environmental Vision for the year 2050.

Related Policies

Nikon Environmental Policy (PDF:384KB)

Strategy

To safeguard human health and reduce environmental risks, the Nikon Group strives to implement rigorous chemical substance management that adheres to international regulatory frameworks. As part of our efforts to manage chemical substances, we established and operate unique Nikon Group standards under the Hazardous Chemical Substances Guideline that are stricter than laws and regulations for chemical substances used in production processes, safety and health, and chemical substances contained in products. We may make special exceptions to use restricted chemical substances only within the scope of laws and regulations when replacing or discontinuing use is technically difficult. At the same time, we pursue activities to eliminate such substances.

Chemical Substances Contained in Products

We comply with the EU RoHS Directive^*1, REACH Regulation^*2, and other laws and regulations on chemical substances contained in products around the world. To this end, we manage regulated substances in two categories: Prohibited and Control. We require that procurement partners comply with Nikon Group management standards (Nikon Green Procurement Standards).
We follow the latest trends in chemical substance regulations and prohibit relevant substances in our procured items to control and reduce said substances before regulations are enforced. We also track trends in each country in advance of the enforcement of laws and regulations to share information and develop alternative technologies.

*1EU RoHS Directive: RoHS stands for "Restriction of Hazardous Substances." This directive restricts use of specified hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
*2REACH Regulation: An EU regulation on chemical substances that came into effect in 2007. REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. Under this regulation, manufacturers, and importers of chemical substances are required to register information on the safety and use of these substances.

Chemicals Used in Production Processes

We manage substances, categorized according to environmental and health risk: Prohibited, Reduce, Control, and Other.

We not only comply with laws, regulations, ordinances, and other rules to prevent air, water, and soil contamination from hazardous chemical substance emissions, we also enter into agreements with local organizations, set voluntary standard values in said areas, and engage in other initiatives.

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Technology Without Hazardous Substances

The Nikon Group develops technologies that eliminate the use of hazardous substances, including lead- and arsenic-free glass^*, lead-free solder, and the complete elimination of heavy metals (hexavalent chromium, lead, cadmium, and mercury) in all surface treatment processes.

Organofluorine compounds (PFAS) are extremely stable compounds that we use in numerous products. The stability of PFAS reversely makes it difficult to decompose in nature or in the body, causing countries to review the safety of the substance and expand product content restrictions. PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and related substances are a type of PFAS already designated as substances to be eliminated under the Stockholm Convention. PFHxA is another type of PFAS, regulated under EU REACH and added to the list of restricted substances. The Nikon Green Procurement Standards have prohibited these substances ahead of the effective regulation date, and we have replaced components that contain these substances. The State of California in the U.S. banned the use of PFAS in textile products effective January 1, 2025. The Nikon Group designated PFAS as a banned substance in 2023 and began substituting out components containing PFAS. In May 2025, long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acid (LC-PFCA) was designated as a substance to be eliminated under the Stockholm Convention. Regulations are expected to be enforced in various countries in 2026. In anticipation, Nikon prohibited the use of this substance in procured products beginning in May 2026, and we are working on replacing parts containing the substance.

*Lead- and arsenic-free glass: Nikon has developed a new type of glass that contains absolutely no lead or arsenic for the optical glass used in the lenses and prisms built into optical instruments. Nikon uses lead- and arsenic-free glass for optics in most products, with certain exceptions for special applications.

Nikon Group's PRTR and VOCs

The Nikon Group in Japan and Group manufacturing companies outside Japan manage and reduce chemical substances in accordance with the Group's unique Hazardous Chemical Substances Guideline. We ensure the safe handling and disposal of applicable chemical substances in accordance with safety data sheets (SDS)^*1 and survey substance use, emissions, and recycling volumes twice a year. We conduct the surveys for substances of which 100 grams or more are handled per year, implementing internal management that is more rigorous than the PRTR^*2 in Japan, which only requires reporting for substances of which 0.5 tons (Specific Class I Designated Chemical Substances) or 1 ton or more (Class I Designated Chemical Substances) are handled per year.

We work to reduce atmospheric emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC)^*3. Our efforts to reduce emissions include making cleaning equipment more airtight and increasing solvent recycling rates. For fiscal year 2025, VOC emissions totaled 68 tons from the Nikon Group in Japan and 291 tons from Group manufacturing companies outside Japan. These figures represent a 24% reduction compared with the previous fiscal year.

*1Safety data sheet (SDS): To promote improvements in the appropriate management of chemical substances by business enterprises, when a chemical substance specified by the Chemical Substances Control Law (Act on Confirmation, etc. of Release Amounts of Specific Chemical Substances in the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof), or a product containing such a substance, is transferred or supplied from one enterprise to another, the transferring or supplying enterprise is required to provide, in advance, a safety data sheet (SDS) noting information about the characteristics of the chemical substance and how it should be handled.
*2PRTR: A system for issuing a notice of the release and transfer of chemical substances under the Act on Confirmation, etc. of Release Amounts of Specific Chemical Substances in the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof.
*3VOC: The Nikon Group address the 100 major VOCs listed by the Ministry of the Environment.