Common Tasks In response to expanding international distribution of motor vehicles and equipment and globalization of the automobile industry, Global Technical Regulations, an international agreement promoting global harmonization of safety and environmental regulations for motor vehicles and equipment, which differ in each country, was signed by eight countries, including Japan, and put into effect on August 25, 2000. (Japan signed the Agreement in August 1999. As of September 2001, there are 15 signatory nations.) Global harmonization of regulations based on the Agreement will be the subject of full-fledged deliberations by Japan, the USA, Europe and other concerned nations at the UN World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP29). In formulating international harmonized regulations, the Japanese government thus far has advocated the need for compiling common global definitions for automobile categories and for methods of measuring their weights and dimensions, which are stipulated separately in each country at present. As a result, the necessity was recognized internationally; a W/G was established under the Working Party on General Safety Provisions (GRSG) of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, UN/ECE (WP29), chaired by Japan's Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Discussions will be held among concerned nations, etc., and common global definitions of vehicle categories, weights and dimensions will be determined, hopefully by this autumn.