The Law of Rational Use of Energy (or Energy Conservation Law, ECL) was enforced in Japan in 1979 after two oil crises for the country. Since then ECL has developed and enhanced energy efficiency policies for the industrial, transportation and commercial sectors [ACEEE, 2010b]. There are four major areas addressed by the ECL. Groups targeted in each area are:

• Factories, etc: Managers of factories and workplaces
• Transportation: transport companies
• Housing buildings: building owners/developers and managers
• Equipment and appliances: producers and importers of equipment and appliances

There are two key factors of the ECL [IEEJ, 2011];

• To prepare an Energy Management System within each industry which initiates “Plan-Do-Check-Act” cycle to function to improve Energy Efficiency of the facility autonomously while maintaining the productivity at the same time.
• To set Energy Efficiency as the basic course of action for corporate activities.

For manufacturing and commercial sectors, including not only factories and plants but also office buildings, hospitals and departmental stores, the ECL includes the system of defined energy management sites, which requires reduction in energy use intensity by 1% yearly for the facilities who consume annually more than 3000 KL COE energy, submission of annual reports on their energy consumption and investment plans to the Government and assignment of a qualified energy manager.