Fires in Japan Caused by Battery Chargers Prompt Calls for Greater Awareness of Risks

By Akihiro Takeda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:01 JST, October 3, 2025

Portable battery chargers and other items containing lithium-ion batteries are continuing to frequently cause fires, prompting calls for people to become more aware of the risks these batteries can pose.

The government has amended legislation to strengthen the regulations covering such batteries. However, these changes cannot easily resolve the problem because some overseas businesses sell shoddy products to Japanese consumers online.

Lithium-ion batteries that are discarded without being separated from other trash can catch fire, which could result in waste treatment plants halting operations and other issues.

“They’re used in various products, but there’s little awareness about the danger they potentially possess,” the head of the Consumer Affairs Agency’s consumer safety division, said at a press conference Thursday about the spate of fires. “We urge people to be careful when they use these batteries and when they throw them out.”

He also called on people to be careful when disposing of wireless earphones and handheld electric fans, which use lithium-ion batteries and have become increasingly common in recent years.

Six people sustained minor injuries when a fire broke out in a room of an apartment in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, before dawn on Sep. 25.

A female resident of that apartment said she was charging her smartphone with a portable battery overnight, and when a noise woke her up, she saw flames coming from the charger.

In July, services on the JR Yamanote Line in Tokyo were severely disrupted after a battery charger being used by a passenger to charge her smartphone caught fire. The battery charger, which was made in China, had been recalled in June 2023.

Lithium-ion batteries are vulnerable to heat and sudden impacts, and batteries that have deteriorated must be handled with extra care because they can ignite.

According to the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation, portable battery chargers caused 123 fires in 2024, an increase of more than 150% from the 47 fires reported in 2020. The institute is an independent administrative agency.

In 2018, portable battery chargers became subject to regulations under the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law. Consequently, the sale of such products without a PSE label, a mark indicating they meet the nation’s product safety standards, is prohibited. However, some chargers made in China and elsewhere that do not meet these standards apparently bear fake PSE labels and are sold cheaply.

Some believe it is possible that poor-quality products that domestic consumers bought online directly from overseas businesses are circulating in Japan.

In 2024, the government revised legislation to ensure such overseas businesses also were subject to the electrical appliance law. This change is scheduled to take effect from December.

Overseas businesses that sell portable battery chargers directly to Japanese consumers will be obligated to have a person responsible for the company’s products stationed in Japan and to ensure their products comply with Japanese technical standards.

However, there is no guarantee that overseas businesses will adhere to the revised law, and the prospects of halting the flow of shoddy products into Japan remain unclear.

Waste facilities pay heavy price

Fires caused by lithium-ion batteries at waste disposal facilities and in garbage trucks also have been increasing. Battery chargers have been the most common cause of these fires, followed by heated tobacco products.

In December, a fire thought to have been started by a lithium-ion battery extensively damaged a waste disposal facility in Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture. The facility is scheduled to undergo repairs until September 2027, and the construction and other costs are estimated to reach about ¥4 billion.

A similar fire occurred at an industrial waste treatment facility in Ota Ward, Tokyo, in May. It has been estimated that reconstructing the Tokyo facility will take at least one year and cost several billion yen.

In April, the Environment Ministry issued a notice instructing municipal governments nationwide to ensure discarded lithium-ion batteries are collected separately from other garbage. According to a survey by the ministry, 75% of local governments collected lithium-ion batteries as of fiscal 2023, but many municipalities had yet to take such steps.

The Setagaya Ward government in Tokyo has started collecting lithium-ion batteries and portable battery chargers as noncombustible waste from this month.