. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/JPN/225 
5 November 2007 
 (07-4801) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   JAPAN
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of  Agriculture, Fo restry and Fisheries of Japan 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:         
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Fresh foods marketed in 
the domestic market.  
5. Title, number of pages and lang uage(s) of the notified document:    
Executive Summary – Report of Wider Applica tion of the Quality Labelling Standards 
under the Law Concerning Standardization and Proper Labelling of Agricultural and 
Forestry Products (the JAS Law) – by the Committee on the Future Course of Labelling of 
Foods Traded among Dealers (2 pages, in English).  
The Draft Revised Quality Labelling Standard  for Fresh Foods will be notified as an 
addendum to this notification after the texts become available. 
6. Description of content:   
- To introduce a wider application of the Qua lity Labelling Standard for Fresh Foods under 
the JAS Law. Fresh foods which are used for ingredients of processed foods will be subject 
to mandatory labelling of: a) name of the f ood; and b) place of origin, where labelling of 
place of origin of the main ingredient is mandatory for final processed foods. Those processed foods include 20 categories of pro cessed foods which were already provided in 
the Quality Labelling Standard for Processed Foods.  
- To encourage dealers to keep records of transactions to ensure the truthfulness of labelling.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
To prevent deceptive and misleading labelling practices and to contribute to providing 
consumers with information for informed choices. G/TBT/N/JPN/225 
Page 2  
 
   
8. Relevant documents:   The Quality Labelling Standard for Fresh Foods (Notification No. 
514 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of 31 March 2000). 
The Law Concerning Standardization and Prope r Labelling of Agricultural and Forestry 
Products (Law No. 175 of 1950). 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    January 2008  
1 April 2008 (To be announced in “KAMPO” 
(Official Government Gazette)) 
10. Final date for comments:   60 days after the circulation 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
The Relevant documents in 8 above are available in English at: 
http://www.maff.go.jp/soshiki/syok uhin/hinshitu/e_l abel/index.htm 
 The records of discussions on labelling of foods traded among dealers prior to the sale 
offered for final consumers are available in Japanese at: 
 http://www.maff.go.jp/j/jas/kaigi/gyosha_kan.html