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Columns on Food Labeling/Regulations in Japan
Tag Archives: Japan
1st Meeting on Foods with Nutrient Function Claims (FY2025), Japan – Review of Minimum and Maximum Permitted Levels and Functions of Nutrients
On October 8, 2025, the first meeting on Foods with Nutrient Function Claims (FNFC) (FY2025) (Japanese) was held.This fiscal year’s meeting will focus on two main issues: the minimum and maximum permitted levels, and the functions of nutrients. In this article, I would like to outline the background of the review of the FNFC system… more »
Partial Amendment to Japan’s Food Labelling Standards Announced (FFC update!)
On October 1, 2025, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) announced a partial amendment to the Food Labelling Standards and related regulations. Among the claims that were previously prohibited from emphasizing ingredients other than functional ingredients, certain wordings indicating the absence or non-addition of specific ingredients (e.g. “no XX added”, “does not contain XX”) will be… more »
1st Discussion of the year on Japan’s Front of Package Nutrition Labelling : (Summer 2025)
On July 29, 2025, the 1st Discussion on Japan’s Front of Package Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) 2025 (in Japanese) was held and the guidelines for Japan’s FOPNL (draft) (in Japanese) were presented. As part of our on-going efforts to report on the situation, we would like to outline the labelling methods for Japan’s front of package… more »
Revision of Japanese Guidelines for Legal Seafood Product Names – with Background
The First Meeting of the FY2025 Discussion Meeting on the Draft Revision of the guidelines for the legal product names of seafood (Shellfish) (Japanese)was held on June 2, 2025. The discussion proceeded based on the background and framework of the existing guidelines (Japanese) and the reasons behind the proposed revisions (Japanese). In this article I… more »
Proposed amendments to prohibited claims for FFC, and Review of labelling rules for individual food items originating from former Food Sanitation Act (Japan)
On June 13, 2025, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) announced the launch of a public comment period on the Cabinet Office Ordinance (Draft) to partially amend the Food Labelling Standards (Japanese). For Foods with Functional Claims (FFC)*, the use of wording that highlight ingredients other than functional ingredients (with some exceptions) is prohibited. The proposed… more »
Amendment to Guidelines for setting date labelling on foods (Japan)
In March 2025, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) amended the Guidelines for setting date labelling on foods (Japanese). This update stems from the Policy package toward achieving food loss reduction targets (December 2023) (Japanese), which called for a review of the previous guidelines (February 2005) (Japanese) to examine current practices for determining date labelling and… more »
5th Discussion on Japan’s Front of Package Nutrition Labelling: 2025
On March 6, 2025, the 5th Discussion on Japan’s Front of Package Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) 2025 (in Japanese) was held. The Labelling Policy for the guidelines for Japan’s FOPNL based on the discussions to date (draft) (in Japanese) was presented as the discussion material. A summary is provided below. Background and objectives This initiative stems… more »
Important Notice: Food Labelling Standards amended (Japan)
The Cabinet Office Ordinance to partially amend Food Labelling Standards (Japanese) was promulgated and came into effect on March 28, 2025.N.b. No changes have been made to the proposed amendment or the transitional measures since the draft was released for public comment in January. We have mentioned it previously on LinkedIn, but due to the… more »
Proposed change to the way of applying labelling rules for spices used as ingredients (Japan)
On January 21, 2025, the 8th Subcommittee on Reviewing Labelling Rules for Each Individual Item* 2025 (Japanese) (hereinafter referred to as “the Subcommittee”) was held. In this article I would like to take up the proposed change in labelling rules application for spices used as ingredients. The proposed change in the application of cross-sectional labelling… more »
Trends in plant-based food labelling standards in various countries
In January 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) released Labeling of Plant-Based Alternatives to Animal-Derived Foods: Draft Guidance for Industry. I’d like to provide an overview of the latest trends in plant-based food labelling regulations across various countries, viewed from Japan. The U.S. As mentioned above, the guidance on alternatives for animal-derived foods… more »
