Japan's government approved a bill on Friday, October 23 to revise the Commercial Code so that bills of lading — essential to maritime trade — can be issued and exchanged electronically with the same legal effect as paper documents, Jiji Press reported. The cabinet of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hopes the bill passes the current Diet session, which ends in December, with implementation in fiscal 2027.
The motivation: the current Commercial Code assumes paper documents only. As ships have gotten faster, cargo increasingly arrives before the original bill of lading does, leaving consignees unable to take delivery and racking up demurrage and storage charges. Electronic bills can be issued and transferred instantly, compressing the whole documentation cycle.
Beyond ocean bills of lading, the revision would also allow warehouse receipts and multimodal transport documents to be issued electronically. Other major maritime states — including the UK, France and Singapore — are advancing similar legislation, and Tokyo aims to keep its trade procedures competitive through digitization.
For China-Japan trade the fix is particularly relevant: transit times are short (East China to Tokyo in just 2-3 days), so the 'cargo first, documents later' mismatch is common — one reason surrendered (telex-released) bills and sea waybills are already standard practice on the lane. Once enacted, e-B/L legislation should further accelerate cross-border document flow and pave the way for paperless clearance and blockchain-based bills.
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