Support for Industrial Waste Disposal Operators Aiming for Excellent Operator Certification

Overview: This Fukui Prefecture subsidy, administered by the Energy & Environment Department's Circular Society Promotion Division, supports industrial waste disposal operators in obtaining or maintaining 'Excellent Industrial Waste Operator' certification, in order to advance recycling and waste reduction in the prefecture. The April 2026 (Reiwa 8) operations manual governs the scheme. Eligibility: Applicants must be industrial waste disposal operators (licensed under Articles 14(6) or 14-4(6) of the Waste Management Act) who own processing facilities within Fukui Prefecture, demonstrate motivation toward certification, can execute the project reliably, and can deliver accurate performance reports. Religious, political, anti-social-forces, and public-order-violating activities are excluded. Eligible expenses and content: Three project categories: (1) Development project (EcoAction 21 / ISO 14001 certification) covering examination, certification, and registration fees of first-time acquisition; (2) Development project (training participation) covering travel, materials, tuition, honoraria, instructor travel, commissions, and other expenses; (3) Support project (for already-certified operators) including the above plus printing and venue costs. Excluded: individual sales activities, production equipment, expenses incurred before the grant decision date, consumption tax, and bank transfer fees. Subsidy rate and procedure: Subsidy rate 1/2 within an upper limit of 200,000 JPY per category (truncated to thousands). The grant period starts on the decision date and ends at fiscal year-end. The procedure is: application -> review -> grant decision -> project start -> status report (Form 5) -> interim inspection -> performance report (Forms 6/7/8 within one month of completion or by April 10 of the following fiscal year, whichever is earlier) -> final inspection -> amount fixing -> payment claim (Form 9) -> disbursement. Multiple quotes are required for any expense above 100,000 JPY. Applicants must have no outstanding prefectural tax or consumption tax.