ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) sets international standards for a wide range of fields, from industrial products and services to the way organizations are managed.
Founded in 1947 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, ISO has one member per country, the national body that represents it (for Japan, the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee, JISC). Because its standards are decided by consensus among member countries, ISO standards are the leading example of standards set through formal procedures, de jure standards (デジュレスタンダード). ISO also develops management system standards (マネジメントシステム規格), which define how an organization manages areas such as quality and the environment.
AnalogyPicture delegates from every country meeting to agree, through discussion, on shared yardsticks that work across borders, from the size of a screw to the way a company is run.
How to rememberISO does not match the initials of its English name, which would give IOS. The short name comes from the Greek isos, meaning "equal", and the same three letters are used in every language.
Exam points
ExamISO sets not only product standards but also management system standards (マネジメントシステム規格); examples are ISO 9001 for quality and ISO/IEC 27001 for information security.
Mix-upISO standards are de jure standards (デジュレスタンダード) decided by agreement among member countries. A de facto standard (デファクトスタンダード) is one company's specification that comes to be treated as the standard because the market uses it widely, so it reaches that status by a different route.
IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) sets international standards only for electrical and electronic technology.
Major international standards bodies
ISO: a wide range of fields except electrical/electronic and telecommunications
IEC: electrical and electronic technology
ITU (International Telecommunication Union): telecommunications
Founded in 1906 and, like ISO, headquartered in Geneva, the IEC has a national committee from each country as its members. It covers the safety, performance and test methods of technologies that use electricity, such as home appliances, electronic components, batteries and power generation equipment. Standards that touch both fields, as information technology does, are written by a joint ISO and IEC committee and published under numbers that begin with ISO/IEC.
AnalogyIt is like a specialist hospital that treats only electrical cases, standing on its own beside a general hospital that covers a wide range of departments.
How to rememberThe E stands for Electrotechnical and the C for Commission, which the Japanese name renders as "conference" (会議).
Exam points
ExamThe field the IEC sets international standards for is electrical and electronic technology. International standardization of telecommunications is handled by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 国際電気通信連合), a specialized agency of the United Nations.
Mix-upA standard that carries both names, such as ISO/IEC 27001, was produced and published jointly by ISO and the IEC, and counts as a standard of either body.
IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a professional society of engineers in the electrical, electronic and communications fields, and it sets many technical standards, with LAN standards the best known.
Based in the United States, IEEE has individual engineers from around the world as members, and it develops standards alongside publishing journals and holding conferences. Its standards go by numbers such as "IEEE 802.3", and the group starting with 802 covers network technologies such as LAN. The wired LAN standard Ethernet (イーサネット, IEEE 802.3) and the wireless LAN standard IEEE 802.11 are both in wide use.
AnalogyThink of an association of electrical experts deciding the wiring and communication rules for connecting devices, with manufacturers then building products to match.
How to rememberIt is read "I-triple-E", from the three Es in a row in Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Exam points
ExamIEEE is an engineers' society (学会) headquartered in the United States that sets network standards such as IEEE 802.3 for wired LAN and IEEE 802.11 for wireless LAN.
Mix-upIEEE's members are individual engineers, which sets it apart in structure from ISO and the IEC, whose members are national standards bodies and committees.
W3C is an international body that sets the standard specifications for Web technologies such as HTML and CSS.
W3C was founded in 1994 under the lead of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, and companies, universities and research institutes take part as members. Specifications that members discuss and agree on are published as Recommendations (勧告). Because browser developers and site builders follow the same Recommendations, the same page can be viewed in any browser.
AnalogyLike an editorial board that compiles a shared grammar book and hands it out, so that browsers and websites everywhere can speak the same language.
How to rememberWorld Wide Web has three Ws, hence W3, and the final C stands for Consortium.
Exam points
Mix-upW3C writes specifications for technologies used in Web pages and browsers, a different layer from IEEE, which sets network standards such as LAN.
IEEE vs. W3C
Aspect
IEEE
W3C
Organization
Engineers' society headquartered in the US
International body with companies, universities and others as members
Key differenceTechnologies standardized
Network technologies such as LAN, plus electrical and electronic technology
JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards, 日本産業規格) are the national standards Japan sets for domestic industrial products, data, services and more.
ISO publishes an international standard (e.g. ISO 9001)
A matching JIS draft is prepared in Japan
Enacted by the competent minister after JISC review
Used in Japan as a JIS (e.g. JIS Q 9001)
The enacted JIS is used by Japanese companies and in certification, and is treated as the counterpart of the original international standard.
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Under the Industrial Standardization Act, JIS are, as a rule, enacted by the competent minister after review by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC). A revision of the law that took effect in July 2019 added data and services to the scope and changed the Japanese name from 日本工業規格 ("industrial") to 日本産業規格 ("industry"). JIS based on international standards often use matching numbers, and in the management system field they carry the symbol "JIS Q".
AnalogyThink of it as Japan's official rulebook, with many chapters written to match the worldwide rulebook.
How to rememberJ is Japanese and S is Standards. The I is Industrial from the old name, and even after the renaming the English name is still Japanese Industrial Standards.
Exam points
ExamJIS are national standards (国家規格) written to be consistent with international standards, and many JIS take an ISO standard as their base and match its content.
ExamA JIS that corresponds to an ISO management system standard (マネジメントシステム規格) is written as "JIS Q" plus the same number: JIS Q 9001 for quality and JIS Q 27001 for information security.