# Japan handset local SAR limit (head)

> 2 W/kg averaged over any 10 g of tissue and any six minutes, mandatory for equipment used close to the head since June 2002.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/limits/japan-head-sar-limit
- Collection: Exposure limits
- Record id: `limits:japan-head-sar`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/limits/japan-head-sar-limit

## Key values

- **Limit value:** 2 W/kg — Regulatory value — legally enforceable — Equipment with an average power below 20 mW is exempt. The 10 g averaging mass matches the EU/ICNIRP convention, so Japanese figures are comparable with European declared SAR values but not with U.S. FCC values averaged over 1 g against a 1.6 W/kg limit. [japan-mic-rrpg]
- **Quantity:** specific absorption rate
- **Frequency band:** equipment used near the head
- **Population:** general public
- **Set by:** Japan Radio Radiation Protection Guidelines (電波防護指針) (Radio Radiation Protection Guidelines 1990/1997; enforced through 電波法施行規則 art. 21-3 and appended table 2-3-2 (as amended 2017))
- **Kind:** Regulatory — legally enforceable
- **Averaging time:** 6 minutes — A measurement must use the same averaging before it can be compared with this value.

## Related records

- [ICNIRP 2020 local SAR basic restriction (head and torso)](https://emfbase.com/limits/icnirp-local-sar-limit): 2 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue for the general public — a different averaging mass than the FCC's 1 g, which is why SAR numbers are not directly comparable between regions.
- [FCC SAR limit for phones and portable devices](https://emfbase.com/limits/fcc-sar-limit-phones): 1.6 W/kg averaged over any 1 gram of tissue — the number quoted on U.S. phone SAR sheets — plus 0.08 W/kg whole-body.
- [Why does the same phone have two different SAR values?](https://emfbase.com/questions/why-does-phone-sar-differ-between-us-and-europe): U.S. SAR is averaged over 1 g against 1.6 W/kg; EU/ICNIRP SAR over 10 g against 2 W/kg. The numbers are not interchangeable, and body-worn values only hold at their declared separation distance.

## Sources

- `japan-mic-rrpg` Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan. *Possible Health Effects on the Human Body from Radio Wave Exposure — Radio Radiation Protection Guidelines*. https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/e/sys/ele/body/index.htm — government, link checked 2026-08-12
- `japan-radio-law-table` 総務省 電波利用ポータル (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan). *電波法施行規則 第21条の3 および別表第2号の3の2 — 電波の強度の値 (Radio Law Enforcement Regulations, art. 21-3 and appended table 2-3-2: permitted radio-wave field strengths)*. https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/j/sys/ele/medical/system/laws/index.htm — regulation, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.