Geographical Indications: from tradition to business. The case of Japan and the gradual loss of terroir’s fundamental.

Abstract

The designations of protected origin are a protectionist system able to protect the originality of a food product and guarantee consumers’ quality, safeguarding specific knowledge and techniques that give the food some unique characteristics. Each nation has its own protectionist system dictated by different historical and social needs. Over the years the interest on geographical designations increase, becoming the subject of debate in international trade. A bilateral trade agreement between two countries that provides for a protectionist system generates considerable economic benefits. In today's scenario it would seem that many of the emerging countries want to insert a protectionist system mainly to be able to establish trade agreements with other more powerful states. Japan introduced the designation of protected origin for the first time in 2015 and between 2017 and 2018, a trade agreement was signed between Europe and Japan, based on the mutual protection of its protected food products and on the reduction of customs duties, to create one of the largest alliances. Japan could have adopted a specific protectionist system carefully considering the current economic situation. In a similar scenario, the main reasons why the geographical names of protected origin were born start to fade. The elimination of customs barriers and commercial facilities allowed the producers to gain a competitive advantage even on products that guarantee only a local reputation and this could have negative consequences for consumers. Taking into consideration the case of Japan, I will try to study in more detail the reason and the consequence of the adoption of these system, through the analysis of data, report and questionnaires submitted to consumers.