Nadcap Accredited Suppliers in Japan: Find and Verify
Your purchase order for a turbine bracket flows down a prime's process specification, and the heat treating has to be done by a Nadcap-accredited source. The shop you are looking at in Japan sends a company profile that says "JIS Q 9100 certified." That certificate covers its quality management system, not its furnaces. It does not tell you whether the heat treating line itself holds Nadcap accreditation.
The short answer: Nadcap accredits individual special processes (heat treating, chemical processing, nondestructive testing, welding, and others) at a specific site, and you confirm it in PRI's Qualified Manufacturers List (QML), not in a brochure. Japanese suppliers do take part. PRI has had a Japan office since 2005, and Japanese aerospace makers sit on the program as subscribers. But accreditation is held process by process and site by site, so you have to check the exact scope.
This guide explains what Nadcap covers and how it differs from AS9100/JIS Q 9100, what the Nadcap landscape in Japan looks like, how to verify a Japanese supplier in the QML, and what to expect if your supplier is not accredited yet. It ends with a checklist, a question list, and an inquiry email you can send as is.
Contents
- What Is Nadcap, and How Is It Different from AS9100 / JIS Q 9100?
- Why Special Processes Get Their Own Accreditation
- Nadcap in Japan: Who Takes Part
- How to Find and Verify a Nadcap Supplier in Japan
- Nadcap Commodities and Their Japanese Names
- What the Audit Checks, and Who Decides
- Accreditation Cycle: 12, 18, or 24 Months
- If Your Japanese Supplier Is Not Accredited Yet
- Checklist: Before You Approve a Japanese Special-Process Supplier
- Questions to Ask the Japanese Supplier
- Where This Guide Does Not Apply
- FAQ
- Sources
What Is Nadcap, and How Is It Different from AS9100 / JIS Q 9100?
Nadcap (originally the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) is an industry-managed accreditation program for special processes in aviation, defense, and space. It is run by the Performance Review Institute (PRI), a nonprofit affiliated with SAE International. Major aerospace manufacturers launched it in 1990. Today, OEMs such as Boeing, Airbus, GE, and Rolls-Royce require it from their suppliers. PRI lists more than 4,500 accredited suppliers.
The key difference: AS9100 looks at the company's management system, while Nadcap looks at how each process is actually run. In Japan, AS9100 is adopted as JIS Q 9100, so a Japanese supplier will often quote the JIS number. A certification body audits the whole quality system from design to shipping. Nadcap sends an auditor who specializes in one process, such as heat treating or NDT, to check the work on the shop floor.
The two come in sequence. According to the Japan Aerospace Quality Group (JAQG), a supplier needs AS9100 or an equivalent certification before it can undergo a Nadcap audit, and ISO 9001 alone is not enough.
Related: JIS Q 9100 vs AS9100: Japanese Aerospace Suppliers
AS9100 audits the company's system. Nadcap audits how each process is run.
Based on JAQG, "FAQ: Special Processes (Nadcap)" (Japanese), and PRI, "Nadcap."
Why Special Processes Get Their Own Accreditation
A special process is one whose result you cannot fully verify by inspecting the finished part. You cannot tell from the surface whether a heat-treated part reached the intended hardness and microstructure, or whether the surface was properly prepared before plating. Some defects show up only in service.
If you cannot inspect quality in, you have to prove the process ran as specified every time. That means a furnace with uniform temperature, calibrated thermocouples and instruments, controlled bath chemistry, and trained operators. Special process control secures quality through how the part is made.
Primes used to audit and approve each supplier's processes themselves. As supply chains went global, the audit load on primes grew, and suppliers faced a near-identical audit from every customer. In November 1989, a US government and industry conference called for an end to these duplicate audits, and PRI was founded in July 1990. PRI audits on behalf of the primes, and participating companies share the results.
Repeated audits of the same process by each customer were replaced by one shared audit.
Before: each prime approves separately
Each audits to its own criteria
Same furnace, same process, audited again and again
Primes run short of auditors and time; suppliers spend their time preparing for audits
Nadcap: one industry-wide accreditation
Write the audit criteria together
One audit per process
Participating companies share audit results and accreditation status
Based on the International Aircraft Development Fund (IADF), "Commentary 28-6" (Japanese). Some customers still require their own approval in addition to Nadcap.
Nadcap in Japan: Who Takes Part
Nadcap expanded to Europe in 2000 and to Asia in 2003, and PRI opened a Japan office in March 2005, according to an IADF commentary. Japanese suppliers undergo Nadcap audits as well. For scale, an SAE Media article (October 2025) reported 6,224 Nadcap audits in 53 countries in 2024.
On the customer side, Japanese aerospace makers are subscribers, the OEMs that write the audit criteria. Kawasaki Heavy Industries joined as a subscriber in December 2023 and described itself as the second Japanese company to do so. The same SAE Media article says Honda Aero and Honda R&D were added in 2025, bringing the total to 65 OEM subscribers.
On the supplier side, Japan's aerospace supply chain is tiered. Requirements typically start with the airframe and engine OEMs, pass to Japanese heavy-industry Tier 1s, and then flow down to processing companies. A Japanese quality consultancy (Nagoya Hinshoken) describes the same pattern for Nadcap: primes first require it from Tier 1 manufacturers, and Tier 1s then require it from the Tier 2 shops that perform special processes. Accredited Japanese shops include small and mid-sized companies. One example is a supplier directory from the Tokyo Metropolitan Aviation Network, which lists Tokyo-area companies with Nadcap scopes in heat treating, NDT, welding, nonconventional machining, and materials testing. That directory carries no update date, so treat it as a starting point, not as proof of current status.
Two practical points shape how you work with these suppliers:
- The official language is English. Nadcap audit criteria are issued in English, and audits and NCR responses are handled in English. JAQG provides Japanese-English bilingual audit checklists to its members, but the English original is what counts. To pass, Japanese shops need procedures and records they can show in English, and many keep them in both languages.
- Japanese suppliers may use different words. You will see "Nadcap 認証取得" (ninsho shutoku, "certification obtained") or "Nadcap 認定" (nintei, "accreditation") on Japanese websites. Whichever word a supplier uses, confirm the actual status and scope in the QML. Special processes are called 特殊工程 (tokushu kotei).
How to Find and Verify a Nadcap Supplier in Japan
PRI hosts the Qualified Manufacturers List (QML) on its online platform, PRI EAN (formerly eAuditNet). PRI describes the QML as a searchable database of accredited companies that procurement teams can use to build their supply chain. You need to register for an account and log in to use it.
A Lockheed Martin supplier guide (2017) describes two ways to search, and both still work as a mental model even if the screens have changed:
- By supplier: type the company name and pick the entry with the right address, because one company can have several sites.
- By special process: search for suppliers accredited for a given Nadcap checklist (for example, heat treating) and narrow down from there.
Watch for two traps. First, a company name in the QML does not mean it is accredited. The Lockheed Martin guide warns that a company that simply registered on eAuditNet also appears in the search. Check for an active accreditation with an issue date and an expiration date. Second, accreditation belongs to a site and a scope. A Japanese group may hold heat treating at one plant but send your parts to another plant, or hold chemical processing for anodizing but not for the plating you need.
Supplier certificates themselves point to the QML for the current scope and expiration date, so use the certificate as a lead and the QML as the record. For romanized Japanese company names, try variations: Seisakusho vs. "Manufacturing," Kogyo vs. "Industries," and with or without "Co., Ltd."
If you are also auditing the supplier yourself, see our supplier audit checklist for the system-level items Nadcap does not cover.
Nadcap Commodities and Their Japanese Names
Nadcap accreditation is split into process categories called commodities. PRI's website lists more than 20, including heat treating, chemical processing, coatings, welding, nondestructive testing, surface enhancement, nonconventional machining, and materials testing laboratories. There are also product and material commodities (composites, sealants, elastomer seals, electronics, additive manufacturing) and quality-system commodities. A supplier usually holds several commodities and is audited separately for each.
The commodity names are English categories, so you need to map them to what a Japanese shop calls its processes. Plating, anodizing, conversion coating, and cleaning or etching fall under Chemical Processing. Thermal spray and painting fall under Coatings, shot peening under Surface Enhancement, and EDM, laser machining, and chemical milling under Nonconventional Machining.
Use the Japanese terms to read supplier websites and brochures, then confirm the commodity in the QML.
Commodity names as listed on PRI's website. Within each commodity, the supplier is accredited for a specific scope (process methods and specifications).
The audit requirements are highly specialized for each commodity. In heat treating, the shop must be able to work to the heat treating specifications for aluminum, titanium, and nickel-based alloys, not just know the basics of steel quenching and tempering. In chemical processing, knowing plating types and their properties is not enough; bath analysis frequency and pretreatment control are at the center. In other words, Nadcap does not ask "can you do this process?" It asks "can you prove with records that you run it to specification under the same conditions every time?"
What the Audit Checks, and Who Decides
A PRI-assigned auditor, an expert in the process, comes to the site, confirms the scope on day one, and works through the audit criteria checklist (AC). Boeing's supplier FAQ says audits generally take two to five days, and the IADF commentary puts the average at about three days.
- Document review: Are customer specifications fully flowed into the shop's procedures, and are there records to back them up? If the supplier cannot produce a required record, that is a nonconformance on the spot.
- Job audit: The auditor follows real parts through contract review, job planning, calibration, process parameters, inspection and testing, training, rework, and nonconforming-material handling. For heat treating, the IADF commentary describes reviewing 2 completed jobs and 8 jobs in progress.
- Pyrometry (heat treating): Compliance with AMS2750 is checked, including thermocouple and instrument calibration, temperature uniformity surveys (TUS), and system accuracy tests (SAT). Even chart recorder accuracy and recording rate are reviewed.
Findings are issued as nonconformance reports (NCRs), classed as major (affecting safety or the ability to meet customer requirements) or minor. Per the IADF commentary, the first response is due within 21 days, and the second through fourth within 7 days each. A PRI staff engineer, not the on-site auditor, reviews the responses on paper. Each response needs containment, root cause, impact, corrective action, and objective evidence, with root cause analysis that goes as deep as asking "why" five times. Responses are rarely accepted on the first submission, so suppliers have to understand what each finding is really asking and refine their answers.
The accreditation decision is made by the task group for that commodity, a committee that includes subscriber OEMs. Boeing's FAQ describes Nadcap approval as "granted based upon industry consensus," not by an individual customer. Serious problems during the audit or NCR handling can lead to an audit failure. According to the IADF commentary, the supplier can then be re-audited no earlier than 90 days after the failure decision.
PRI auditors audit. The industry task group decides on accreditation.
Based on PRI, "Nadcap"; IADF, "Commentary 28-6" (Japanese); and SAE Media, "Nadcap at 35."
Accreditation Cycle: 12, 18, or 24 Months
Accreditation is not permanent, so the expiration date in the QML matters. Boeing's FAQ says the first reaccreditation audit takes place within 12 months of the initial audit. Later audits can move to 18- or 24-month intervals under the Supplier Merit Program, which rewards a low number of findings, on-time NCR responses, and sustained corrective actions; the audit scope may also be streamlined. A supplier that answers late or repeats the same findings stays on a 12-month cycle. Between audits, the supplier has to keep up with AC revisions, run calibrations and temperature uniformity surveys on schedule, and keep training records current.
Consistently good audit results lengthen the time to the next audit.
Based on Boeing, "Nadcap FAQ," and IADF, "Commentary 28-6" (Japanese). Detailed conditions follow PRI's operating procedures and task group decisions.
For a buyer, merit status shows that the supplier has met the task group's performance criteria in recent audits. A supplier with an accreditation that expires before your first delivery is a risk you should raise early.
If Your Japanese Supplier Is Not Accredited Yet
Sometimes the shop you want, whether for capability, cost, or location, does not hold the commodity you need. Plan for a long lead time. The IADF commentary says preparation takes at least one year. The audit itself lasts only days, but the supplier has to rebuild procedures, equipment, and records to match the ACs first.
Most of the time goes into preparation before the audit.
Based on IADF, "Commentary 28-6" (Japanese), and PRI, "What Is a Nadcap Supplier?" Timing varies widely by company.
Three points matter most to you as the customer:
- The supplier needs real work to audit. The job audit requires actual parts running through the process, so the audit date has to be coordinated with production and often with your order. Nagoya Hinshoken notes that an initial audit is possible without a contract, but later audits may not be possible without one, because it becomes hard to select jobs for the job audit.
- Sub-tier processing needs approval too. If the supplier sends heat treating or plating to a subcontractor, that subcontractor may also need prime approval or Nadcap. The IADF commentary states that subcontracting a special process requires the prime's facility approval.
- Internal costs are harder to see than the audit fee. PRI's audit fee depends on the number of audit days and auditors, so it rises with each commodity added; ask PRI for current fees. The IADF commentary points out that Japanese suppliers also pay for translation, extra QA staff, and equipment upgrades to fix findings. Audit and upkeep costs also continue after accreditation. Accreditation also does not guarantee orders. The same commentary notes that winning business from overseas Tier 1s still depends largely on sales effort.
A supplier that already undergoes separate process audits from several customers may see some relief once accredited, because Nadcap reduces those duplicate audits.
Checklist: Before You Approve a Japanese Special-Process Supplier
| Item | What to confirm | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Requirement | Which prime specification and which process actually require Nadcap on this part | Your PO, quality clauses, drawing notes |
| QMS | AS9100 / JIS Q 9100 (or equivalent) certificate, valid date, site covered | Certificate; certification body |
| Active accreditation | Active Nadcap accreditation, not just a name listed in the QML | QML on PRI EAN |
| Commodity and scope | Correct commodity (HT, CP, NDT, etc.) and the specific methods and specs you need | QML scope details; certificate |
| Site | The accredited address is the plant that will process your parts | QML entry address |
| Expiration | Expiration date covers your delivery schedule; merit status | QML |
| Customer approvals | Any prime-specific approval needed in addition to Nadcap | Prime's supplier requirements |
| Sub-tier | Whether any process is subcontracted, and whether that sub-tier is approved or accredited | Supplier's process flow; QML |
| Records in English | Process records, certificates of conformance, and test reports available in English | Sample records |
| Export controls | Whether ITAR/EAR-controlled data or parts are involved and how the supplier handles them | Your export compliance team |
Questions to Ask the Japanese Supplier
- Which Nadcap commodities do you hold, at which site, and when does each accreditation expire?
- Does your scope include the specific process and specification on our drawing (for example, the exact anodizing or heat treating spec)?
- Are you on merit status for that commodity?
- Will our parts be processed entirely at the accredited site? If any step is subcontracted, who does it and what approvals do they hold?
- Do you hold any prime-specific approvals for this process?
- Can you provide process records and certificates of conformance in English?
- If not accredited yet: Have you started the process, have you done a PRI pre-assessment, and when do you expect the initial audit? Do you need our parts for the job audit?
Inquiry Email Template
Send this to the supplier's sales contact. A short, specific email is easier to answer accurately, especially when the reader works in English as a second language.
Subject: Nadcap accreditation for [process] – [part number / project name] Dear [Name], We are evaluating your company for [process, e.g., heat treating of Ti-6Al-4V parts to SPEC-XXXX] for [project / customer]. Our purchase order will require Nadcap accreditation for this process. Could you please confirm the following? 1. Nadcap commodity and scope you hold for this process 2. Address of the accredited site, and expiration date of the accreditation 3. Whether all steps will be performed at that site, or any are subcontracted 4. Whether you can provide process records and certificates of conformance in English If possible, please send a copy of your current Nadcap certificate. We will also confirm the details in the QML on PRI EAN. Best regards, [Your name] [Company]
Where This Guide Does Not Apply
- Requirements come from your customer, not from this article. Nadcap is not a legal requirement. Whether you need it, and for which processes, depends on the prime's specifications and your contract.
- Nadcap is not the only approval. Some primes require their own process approval in addition to Nadcap. Check each prime's supplier requirements.
- Procedures change. Merit criteria, NCR deadlines, and audit lengths cited here come from Boeing's FAQ and the IADF commentary and may change. Check PRI's current operating procedures.
- Directories go stale. Lists of Japanese accredited suppliers published by regional networks or on company websites may be out of date. Only the QML shows current status.
- Fees are not listed here. Audit fees vary by commodity, scope, and audit days. Ask PRI for current fees.
FAQ
Is Nadcap the Same as AS9100?
No. AS9100 (JIS Q 9100 in Japan) certifies a company's quality management system. Nadcap accredits individual special processes such as heat treating or NDT at a specific site. A supplier needs AS9100 or an equivalent before it can undergo a Nadcap audit.
How Do I Check If a Japanese Supplier Is Nadcap Accredited?
Search the Qualified Manufacturers List (QML) on PRI EAN (formerly eAuditNet). You need to register for an account and log in. Confirm an active accreditation, the commodity and scope, the site address, and the expiration date. A company name alone in the QML does not mean it is accredited.
Is Nadcap Mandatory?
Not by law. It is a customer requirement. Primes require it from their Tier 1s, and the requirement flows down to the shops that perform special processes.
How Long Does It Take a Supplier to Get Nadcap?
Expect at least a year of preparation, according to the Japanese IADF commentary. The audit itself typically takes two to five days, followed by NCR responses and a task group decision.
How Often Are Nadcap Audits Held?
The first reaccreditation audit comes within 12 months of the initial audit. After that, suppliers that meet merit criteria move to 18- or 24-month intervals; others stay on a 12-month cycle.
Sources
- Nadcap overview, accredited supplier count, PRI EAN and QML: Performance Review Institute, "Nadcap"
- PRI and SAE International: Performance Review Institute, "About PRI"
- Commodity list: Performance Review Institute, "Accreditation"
- Pre-assessment and NCR responses: Performance Review Institute, "What Is a Nadcap Supplier?"
- QML as a searchable database: PRI EAN (eAuditNet)
- Searching the QML; registered names vs. accreditation: Lockheed Martin MFC, "Nadcap eAuditNet Registration Guide" (2017)
- 2024 audits, countries, subscribers (including Honda): SAE Media Group, "Nadcap at 35 Still Defining Excellence in Aviation, Defense and Space Manufacturing" (October 1, 2025)
- Audit length, reaccreditation intervals, industry consensus: Boeing Suppliers, "Nadcap Accreditation" FAQ
- QMS prerequisite and bilingual ACs: Japan Aerospace Quality Group (JAQG), "FAQ: Special Processes (Nadcap)" (Japanese); JAQG, "Nadcap AC Japanese-English Versions" (Japanese)
- History, PRI Japan office, preparation, audit, NCRs, merit program: International Aircraft Development Fund (IADF), "Commentary 28-6: International Accreditation of Aerospace Special Processes (Nadcap)" (Japanese)
- Kawasaki Heavy Industries as subscriber: Kawasaki Heavy Industries press release (December 15, 2023, Japanese)
- Requirement flow-down and contracts: Nagoya Hinshoken, "Special Process Control, Part 8: Special Processes and Nadcap" (Japanese)
- Example directory of Tokyo-area accredited suppliers: Tokyo Metropolitan Aviation Network, "Nadcap: List of Certified Companies"
Original article in JapaneseThis guide is adapted from a MONOSCOPE article written for readers in Japan: Nadcapとは？特殊工程認証の対象・審査・費用の疑問に答える
About the editor
MONOSCOPE EditorFOUNDER & EDITORSpent about ten years at a plant equipment maker and a plant engineering company, proposing, designing, and commissioning equipment, then moved into web marketing. Now a web consultant for B2B manufacturers, helping them explain their products and technology. Licensed in Japan as an Energy Manager and a Third-Class Chief Electrical Engineer.
Has run an engineering blog since 2017 (500+ articles) and a Japanese YouTube channel with about 20,000 subscribers. Each English guide is written from the Japanese shop-floor point of view and checked against the cited standards.
