We are back at it! The upcoming Year of the Tiger is characterized by boldness and going in big. And we are ready! Looking forward to fully diving into the challenges and opportunities of 2022 with our amazing team, colleagues and clients around the world – see you in the field!
Anyone exploring the shops and cafes of Japan’s major cities in the past two years has certainly noticed the explosion of CBD products on retail shelves, online shops and in a growing number of cafes. CBD consumer products range from tinctures and gummies to cosmetics and even pet products, some imported and some manufactured in Japan using CBD raw materials primarily from the U.S., China and the EU.
While CBD products are a major current trend, interest in the Japanese market for a variety of hemp-derived products has grown dramatically in the past few years.Hemp seed and hemp seed oil appear poised for growth in the Japanese health food sector; longer term, there may be opportunities for hemp fiber in construction, insulation and plastic.
Meros recently teamed up with the U.S. Embassy Japan to develop a series of reports on the Japanese market and import regulations for hemp-derived products, to serve as a resource for U.S. exporters planning their business development in Japan. The 2018 U.S. Farm bill legalized the production of industrial hemp in the U.S., defined any cannabis plant or derivative thereof, that contains not more than 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) on a dry-weight basis. This authorization of production in the U.S. has brought optimism that a new commodity crop can be developed in the U.S., with a wide range of uses in industrial, feed and wellness markets and potential for export to global markets.
While Japan has a long history of hemp cultivation, today Japan’s domestic hemp use is mainly limited to fiber for traditional uses linked to the Shinto religion, such as shimenawa ropes decorating shrines or the belts of top ranked sumo champions. To grow cannabis in Japan, a cultivation license is necessary and as of 2019 there were only 35 licensed cannabis cultivators, primarily in Tochigi Prefecture, and a total of 9 hectares under cultivation. There is little expectation that this number will increase in the near term.
And yet industrial hemp has a wide potential range of uses in Japan from seeds for human and animal consumption, fiber for use in apparel, building insulation, plastics and construction materials to hemp extracts such as CBD and other cannabinoids in cosmetics and wellness products. It is expected that these raw materials will need to be imported to Japan; this makes it essential for potential hemp product suppliers to have a deep un
Under Japan’s legal regulatory framework, the Cannabis Control Act bans importation of “cannabis”. The Act defines ‘cannabis’ as “the cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa L.) and its products. However, mature cannabis stalks and products made from stalks (excluding resin, which is illegal), as well as cannabis seeds and products made from the seeds are excluded from this legal definition of “cannabis”. Japan has a zero-tolerance level for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in any product.
The Cannabis Control Act does not explicitly mention THC, however, in practice, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) interprets the presence of THC in a product to mean that parts of the cannabis plant other than mature stalks or seeds were used.Unacceptable parts include flowers, buds, leaves, immature stalks, or roots.
Exporting hemp products to Japan, therefore, requires various documentation and administrative steps in order to comply with the import regulations for legal hemp products.
In this new series of reports, Meros not only looks at the current market dynamics of each product category, but also examples of the import flow and documentation required for hemp fiber, hemp seed, hemp seed oil, CBD and hemp extract products.
Further regulatory changes are expected Japan’s hemp product market in the coming years, so success as a supplier to Japan’s hemp product markets will require on-going observation of the changing dynamics of each market and potential changes in regulation. As always, strong relationships with importers and partners in Japan will be critical for suppliers to navigate these dynamic markets.
The series of reports can be found at the following links:
The Japanese Market for Hemp Fiber
The Japanese Market for Hemp Seed and Hemp Seed Oil Products
Meros welcomes its newest member, Kana Yamada, as a summer research assistant. Kana is a Tokyo-native and will be a third-year student at Wellesley College in the US. She is a political science major with a focus on international relations.
Kana explained to us why she was excited to join Team Meros this summer. “I was especially intrigued by Meros Consulting’s aim of supporting globally sustainable food chains. In high school, I participated in Model United Nations and I had an opportunity to organize a conference on food security, simulating a UN Food and Agriculture Organization conference. As part of our preparation, my team researched how humankind’s most necessary element – food – is endangered by climate change. We also included discussion on the views for and against genetically modified organisms. Ever since, I have found the topic of food security to be very interesting as it is so relevant to our daily lives. We all need to seek innovative solutions and responses to address the ongoing climate change. As Meros deals with topics such as finding ways to expand the global market for innovative food products, including alternative proteins, I wanted to become a summer research assistant to enrich my view on this hot topic.”
“Before joining Meros, I only had a vague image of what consulting companies do and I wanted to learn about the work consulting firms engage in. I am hoping to proactively try to apply some of the knowledge and research methods learned in school to support Meros work in the “real world.”
In the next few months, Kana will be involved in a number of Meros projects for government and private companies as a research assistant. She will also be conducting a more in-depth project on Japan’s migrant worker trainee program in agriculture. This is a topic that Meros investigated in-depth in 2019 as part of a JICA initiative looking at agriculture trade links between Japan and Vietnam. Kana will be providing an update how the program has fared over the past two years under the COVID pandemic, border closures and farm labor shortages.
“I would like to make use of this chance to deepen my knowledge and understanding of the trainee program situation better in order to be able to come up with my own informed conclusions and solutions.”
Kana is also an accomplished classical pianist, adventurous in trying any new foods Meros teammates recommend and an avid dog lover.
Welcome, Kana! We look forward to having you on the team!
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