The Japan Good Agricultural Initiative (JGAI) was formed by a group of
Japanese producers in April 2005, to establish a system that ensures the
safety of agricultural produce by establishing one common standard of
good agricultural practices in Japan - JGAP. The Japanese Ministry of
Agriculture announced in June 2006 that JGAP would become the national
standard, meaning that several private retailers and the current ministry
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GAP scheme will come under the same umbrella. It was decided to
benchmark JGAP against GLOBALGAP in order to strengthen the recognition
of the scheme by retailers within the country and internationally. GLOBALGAP
benchmarking was completed in August 2007.