The Japanese government is forming a dedicated organization to protect new plant varieties, aiming to stop unauthorized overseas leaks of homegrown fruit and vegetable varieties such as Shine Muscat. The move reflects an intent to defend intellectual property rights and collect royalties, as cases of Japanese varieties being grown without permission in China, Korea and elsewhere have increased.
According to a report by the Nikkei on Tuesday, the Japanese government and private sector will launch a dedicated body to manage new variety rights, targeting August. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to certify the organization as a specialized agency in the seed and seedling field and to support its overall operations.
The new body will be entrusted by public research institutions and local governments holding "breeder's rights"—the intellectual property rights for new varieties—to manage those rights, handling protection work both at home and abroad. It plans to monitor whether varieties are being grown overseas without authorization, and to pursue legal procedures such as lawsuits when infringement is uncovered.
Beyond defending rights, the body will also work to spread superior varieties overseas. The plan envisions a cycle in which varieties are provided to seed and seedling sellers or local management agencies, with the royalties that flow back returned to the development institutions and reinvested in research on the next generation of varieties. The body will include not only variety experts but also lawyers to handle licensing contracts and international litigation. The agriculture ministry said this is the first time an organization dedicated solely to managing breeder's rights has been created in Japan.
At the root of this measure is Shine Muscat. Developed by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), seedlings of the variety leaked into China and Korea, where it has been cultivated on a large scale. As of 2022, the cultivated area in China was about 73,700 hectares, 30 times that of Japan. The Japanese government estimates the annual economic loss—calculated based on the royalties it would have received had proper licenses been concluded—exceeds 10 billion yen. As cultivation has also grown in Korea, competition with Japanese export products is intensifying.
When the agriculture ministry examined the online sales pages of Chinese and Korean seed and seedling companies last year, about 50 varieties developed by Japan, including strawberries, citrus and grapes, were being sold.
Yet Japan's development of new varieties is on a declining trend. Most varieties are created by public research institutions, but there has been persistent criticism that they cannot properly defend overseas rights or market the products due to a lack of budget and personnel.
The Japanese government aims to create a virtuous cycle by blocking leaks and securing royalties to replenish research and development funds. Following the revised Seeds and Seedlings Act—fully enforced in April 2022—which banned the unauthorized export of registered varieties, an additional amendment to prevent illegal exports from the application stage is also being pushed for passage in the current session.
