Japan

There are no general requirements for Japan.

Japanese Agricultural Structure organic logo

The Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) for organic livestock products and organic processed foods changed from a voluntary standard to a mandatory standard from 16 July 2020. After this date, all organic livestock products and organic processed foods sold in Japan must be labelled with the JAS organic logo. In Japan, JAS certified importers will be required to label the products with the JAS organic logo.

The livestock products that are subject to the JAS livestock regulation include:

• meat and livestock products derived from the following domesticated animals (bovine, equine, ovine, caprine, and porcine animals) and
• poultry (chickens, quails, ostriches, ducks, and wild duck).

Effective from 25 July 2021, organic turkey exported to Japan will require to be labelled with the JAS organic logo.

Further, plant and organic plant products and organic processed foods qualify to use the JAS organic logo.

Honey and fishery products are not included under the JAS standard so are not eligible for the JAS organic logo in Japan.

One element of the equivalence agreement is Australian organic export products can be exported to Japan, on the condition of an accompanying organic goods certificate (OGC).

Exclusions

Exporters should note the following organics products are excluded from the equivalence agreement:

• Honey
• Fishery products
• Wine, and
• Cosmetics.

For further details refer to Market Access Advice dated 16 July 2020 (MAA 2020-04).

Prohibitions

The Agreement prohibits the use of:

• homeopathic preparations for use in soil fertilising and soil conditioning.
• wetting agents whose ingredients are not listed in the Codex "guidelines for the production, processing, labelling and marketing of organically produced foods", table 2 of annex 2.
• disodium diphosphate, ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulphate as food additives.
  

Under the DAWE-MAFF Equivalence Agreement, Appendix titled, "Conditions and criteria for the equivalence arrangement" provides organic plant, organic livestock product, or organic processed food:

"that fall under the category specified in 5.6 of National Standard (in-conversion) when it is a livestock product or processed food containing in-conversion livestock ingredients that meet the labelling condition specified in the first bullet, 5.3 of National Standard"

cannot be exported as organic to Japan.

National Standard, Edition 3.7, 1 September 2016

The National Standard, Edition 3.7, 1 September 2016 provides the following:

5.6 Produce labelled as in-conversion

5.6.1  The conditions indicated above apply for any products that are to be sold, labelled or represented as in-conversion, with the exception that the ingredients used are sourced from farms in-conversion to organic or bio-dynamic production.

5.6.2  The indications referring to in-conversion product must not mislead the purchaser that the product is other than in-conversion product. Therefore any in-conversion indications must be adjacent to and in the same colour, shade and size as the word organic or bio-dynamic.

5.3 Produce labelled as organic or bio-dynamic

5.3.1  A product may be sold, labelled or represented as organic or bio-dynamic provided the conditions indicated in Section 5 of the National Standard and the following are met:

• At least 95% of the ingredients are from organic or bio-dynamic production, and
• The remaining ingredients are:
  • of agricultural origin, and cannot be sourced in sufficient quantities in accordance with the requirements of this Standard, and/or
  • substances listed in the Appendix G, H, I, J, K and L.