Your Japanese buyer asked for carbon data. Here is who is asking, and why.

The request starts at a listed Japanese company and travels down to you. What you send travels back up. Tap each step to see what it needs.

Japanese carmaker

Large listed Japanese companies are being phased in to report what they buy, and your parts are in it.

What it needs

• Scope 3 for its annual report. That is the emissions of everything it buys, parts included.
• Supplier figures it can defend, not only spend-based estimates.

Why now

• The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) issued its first standards on 5 March 2025. They are built to match the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) climate standard, IFRS S2.
• In February 2026 Japan made them mandatory in annual securities reports, in phases.
• The rule applies to the listed Japanese company, not to you. Your buyer asks because it needs your figures.
• Companies on Japan's top listed market (Prime Market) with a market value of 3 trillion yen or more go first, for fiscal years ending March 2027. Smaller ones follow in later years.
• Estimates are allowed, so early requests may be light. The standard asks companies to use direct value chain data where reasonably available, and say how much rests on estimates.
• Spend-based estimates do not move when a supplier actually cuts emissions. Carmakers with supplier reduction targets need supplier-specific figures.

What reaches it from you

• Your own figures, traceable to your own records. Your buyer normally asks for figures, not your invoices, and passes the answer up.

Your direct buyer (the company that buys from you)

Asks about your company, or about one product. Not the same question.

Two kinds of request

• Company request, driven by your buyer's Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) reporting: your Scope 1, 2 and 3 (fuel you burn, electricity you buy, and what you buy in).
• Product request, from Japan's Carbon Footprint Guidelines: one product, calculated the way government guidance describes.

The product kind, in short

• Issued in March 2023 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of the Environment. Guidance, not law.
• Your own fuel, electricity and material use per unit, not an industry average.
• Usually cradle to gate: it ends when the part leaves your factory.
• A declared unit, such as per kg or per piece, that matches what they buy.
• The method disclosed: standards followed, allocation rules, factor sources, data period.

A company total divided by revenue is not a product footprint. Answer the question you were asked.

What you ask them first

• Their template. A Japanese buyer's own supplier guideline usually sets the format, so follow it.
• Which edition of the guidelines they follow, because the guidance is updated.
• The product, the unit and the reporting year.
• Whether they expect third-party verification. Agree this before you start.

You, the Indian supplier

What you send back, and the bills behind it.

What Japanese buyers of auto parts usually ask

• Scope 1 (fuel you burn) and Scope 2 (electricity you buy) for the year, with the factors used.
• Emissions per part, shared out from plant totals.
• Your renewable power share.
• A target and the actions behind it.

What you send back up

• Annual totals with the method and factors.
• An allocation by machine hours or weight. Use the same method every year so trends mean something.
• Later, a product footprint for key parts, including the materials you buy.

Records to gather

• Electricity bills, solar generation and open access invoices.
• Diesel for gensets and forklifts.
• Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or gas for heat treatment and paint shops.
• Production by part number.

Report location-based Scope 2 with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) factor. Keep a full year and production volumes by product line, so the allocation is quick when the questionnaire lands.

Where Senseible helps

• It reads your fuel slips, electricity bills and freight invoices into a dated record per site, with the source document behind each line.
• It does not allocate emissions to parts automatically.
• Its product footprint report is a self-declared draft. It is not International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14067 verification.
• Figures can be built in the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) exchange format as a custom integration, on request.

Start with the bills, then one part number.

Your buyer may ask for company totals or for one product. Both start from your own records. See how a product footprint is built from them.

See how a product footprint is built