According to OECD knowledge, Japan ranks seventh by way of international locations most affected by counterfeit exercise, with some JPY74.1bn (US$492.7mn) of this attributable to counterfeit meals merchandise.

“Processed food products are a particularly important export sector for Japan as it makes up about JPY771.1bn (US$7.15bn) in export value and Japanese companies have a 2.2% global market share of this segment,”​ the Japan Patent Office mentioned by way of a proper report.

“Other major segments are alcoholic drinks (JPY432.3bn/US$4bn) and soft drinks (JPY217.9bn/US$2.02bn) where Japanese companies hold 5.2% and 2.6% of the respective global market shares.​

“These three categories have also been found to be amongst the top most-counterfeited export products, costing us well over JPY136bn (US$904mn) in losses as of 2021.​

“Surveys with local manufacturers have revealed that many of these counterfeits are still being manufactured in China and the means of concealing the production and sales of these items have become more sophisticated over the years.​

“For instance, some of these are mass-produced in China but the logo is exported separately and [only] affixed in the country of sale so technically there is no infringement of the trademark [for the majority of the process] and enforcement can only be carried out for a short time after the logo is attached and before it goes on sale.”​

To fight these new techniques, the federal government is in flip additionally seeking to implement higher-tech and extra refined applied sciences in figuring out and hunting down such counterfeits, akin to working with specialised digital platforms below the Emergency Export Environment Improvement venture which is headed by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).