Authorize Foreign-Grown Shine Muscat Grapes? Agriculture Ministry Says Yes; Yamanashi Prefecture Says No

By Satoshi Sugawara and Rinka Ono / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

11:38 JST, October 25, 2025

KOFU — A high-end grape cultivar is at the center of a confrontation between the central government and concerned people in Yamanashi Prefecture. The prefecture is one of the main production areas for Shine Muscat grapes.

The confrontation was triggered when the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry unveiled a plan to authorize overseas production of the grape cultivar by overseas companies that will be certified to do so.

Currently, unauthorized foreign-grown Shine Muscat grapes are sold in some countries. The ministry hopes to drive them out of the market by instilling brand recognition of the Japanese-bred cultivar overseas.

However, concerned people in Yamanashi Prefecture have voiced objections to the plan, saying it could undermine the price of domestically grown Shine Muscat grapes. Instead, they argue, exports from Japan should be enhanced.

The Shine Muscat cultivar is characterized by its sweet taste and the ease of eating it whole, skin and all. In supermarkets, single bunches of the grapes sometimes sell for thousands of yen.

In Taiwan, Hong Kong and other main overseas markets to which Shine Muscat grapes are exported, the cultivar is highly popular as a luxury gift.

The cultivar was developed by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) over about 30 years of effort, and it was officially registered as a grape cultivar in 2006 in Japan. NARO is under the jurisdiction of the ministry.

Conditional authorization

In the plan, the government will allow the grape cultivar to be cultivated in New Zealand. NARO, which has the breeder’s right to Shine Muscat, a kind of intellectual property, plans to give the authorization to Japanese companies that have subsidiaries in New Zealand.

The ministry will likely set some conditions for giving the authorization. One is that exports from New Zealand to Japan and to destinations of Japanese exports, such as Taiwan, will be prohibited. Another is that growers in New Zealand should install crime prevention cameras to prevent seedlings of Shine Muscat from being obtained by others.

The authorized companies will pay royalties to NARO and the organization will use the money for such purposes as the development of new varieties.

The plan aims to encourage market circulation of Shine Muscat grapes overseas as a recognized “born in Japan” brand.

The Plant Variety Protection and Seed Law was revised to protect intellectual property in Japanese-made products and in 2021, restrictions were placed on exporting seeds and seedlings to foreign countries.

But the reality is that seedlings and other materials related to Shine Muscat grapes had been taken overseas.

South Korea’s total acreage for cultivating Shine Muscat grapes is about double that of Japan and China’s is about 30 times larger. Thus, “fake” Shine Muscat grapes which are not produced inside Japan have been circulating in the markets at lower prices.

NARO is unable to collect royalties on such sales, and it is estimated that the loss is worth more than ¥10 billion annually.

On the other hand, demand for Japanese-produced Shine Muscat grapes clearly exists overseas, even at higher prices.

Therefore, the ministry is determined to popularize Shine Muscat grapes that are grown with its authorization as Japan’s “genuine” products and try to drive out unauthorized ones.

Do-or-die resolve

The Yamanashi prefectural government voiced objections about the plan, saying that competing with foreign imitators may lower price of domestically grown Shine Muscat grapes.

The prefectural government insists that the central government should make more efforts to promote exports from Japan instead of authorizing production in other countries.

In September, Yamanashi Gov. Kotaro Nagasaki met with then agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo and stated his objections to the plan.

At a press conference, the governor emphatically said: “I want [the central government] to prioritize interests of production sites in Japan. We shall proceed with do-or-die resolve.”

The consternation spread to other production sites. An official of the Yamagata prefectural government said, “Firstly, we should strengthen domestic production sites.” An official of the Nagano prefectural government said, “We have not received sufficient explanation from the central government.”

In addition to its sweetness, Shine Muscat grapes are known for their large size and beautifully rounded shape. To raise the degree of sugar content and foster well-formed grapes, farmers said that culling the fruits and disinfecting the plants are essential.

Kazuya Fukasawa, 68, who runs a farm in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture, cast doubt on the plan, saying: “Our long-time experience affects the taste. I tend the plants many dozens of times to produce a single cluster of the grapes. Can it be done overseas?”

He also expressed concern that the high quality of the Shine Muscat cultivar cannot be maintained, and the image of the Japanese brand may wane.

Risk of adverse inflow

The ministry said it will not proceed with the plan without obtaining understanding from farmers in production sites and aims to offer explanations about the aim of the plan.

Officials of the ministry also said that the ministry wants to discuss measures for encouraging exports of the Shine Muscat grapes.

Shunsuke Orikasa, chief research fellow of the Tokyo-based Distribution Economics Institute of Japan and an expert on market circulation of agricultural products, praised the plan saying, “It is one method to utilize intellectual property.”

However, he pointed out the risk that even if exports from New Zealand are restricted, foreign-grown Shine Muscat grapes may flow into Japan and Taiwan via third countries.

Orikasa said, “It is necessary to establish rules that also based on opinions from production sites.”