The Importance of Plant Variety Protection in Food Production

As the importance of varieties and seeds and seedlings that support more efficient food production and stable supply is being reaffirmed, Japan’s domestic market has remained broadly flat in size, while applications for and registrations of new varieties have declined sharply. In response, the Climate Change and Other Response Varieties Act was enacted and the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act was amended, with the stated aim of balancing the promotion and dissemination of variety development. Improved varieties are expected to offer characteristics such as high yields, labor savings and resistance.

The Climate Change and Other Response Varieties Act establishes a framework to support the development and production of varieties that the government seeks to disseminate widely as important varieties. By certifying development plans submitted by local governments and companies, it provides benefits such as access to facilities and reductions in application fees. Under the important-variety seed and seedling production program, prefectures will formulate basic plans to accelerate production and dissemination. Amendments to the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act enable exports to be halted during the application period, expand the scope of plant breeders’ rights protection, and extend the validity of those rights by 10 years to strengthen protection in Japan and overseas.

The significance of the two laws lies in the challenge of balancing recovery of the long development time and substantial costs required for new varieties with their dissemination through rights protection. At the same time, strategies involving overseas expansion and monetization through licensing are needed, and an initiative has begun to curb the outflow of varieties overseas and promote their domestic dissemination simultaneously through the establishment of plant breeders’ rights management organizations. Expanding the range of varieties covered by prefectural and corporate programs may also be considered in the future.

Operational challenges remain, including application in Japan and overseas, collection of licensing fees and monitoring of unauthorized cultivation. Against a backdrop of a shrinking domestic market, a balance between continued investment and operation of the system is required. Examples include the pear variety Sougetsu, the grape variety Sunny Heart and the apple variety Benitsurugi, which are cited as varieties handled by plant breeders’ rights management organizations.