Japan — Vegetables and Vegetable Products
Japan received 32 FDA import refusals in Vegetables and Vegetable Products between 2024-Q1 and 2026-Q4. Volume peaked at 6 in 2025-Q3, with the trend falling year-on-year. The most-cited issues are unsafe color additive, color not declared, and FD&C Yellow No. 5 undeclared. No trade baseline is published for this commodity from Japan, so no per-$1B rate is shown here.
Exporting from Japan? Get an email when shipments from Japan are refused at the US border — before your buyers ask.
One email a week, and only when something matches. We'll send a confirmation link first; unsubscribe any time from the footer of any email.
Key figures
If you import vegetables and vegetable products from Japan
- Hazard or paperwork
- Of 34 refusals in the last 3 years, 28 were hazard findings and 6 paperwork alone.
- Where refusals happen
- DWCI — West Coast (19); DNEI — Northeast (13); DNBI — North Border, the Canadian land border (1).
- Riskiest months
- December, November, March, by refusals since 2020.
- Test for before shipping
- unsafe color additive (24), FD&C Yellow No. 5 undeclared (3), Listeria monocytogenes (1), poisonous or deleterious substance (1).
- Paperwork to get right
- color not declared (15), label not conspicuous (2), FSVP violation (1).
FDA does not publish how many entries it examines, so no page can state a true probability of refusal; these are the figures that are published.
Quarterly refusals, last 12 quarters
Show the numbers
| Quarter | Refusals | Hazard | Paperwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-Q1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024-Q2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-Q3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-Q4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025-Q1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025-Q2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025-Q3 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| 2025-Q4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2026-Q1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2026-Q2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026-Q3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2026-Q4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
By commodity, last 156 weeks
| Commodity | Refusals | 1 refusal per | Per $1B US imports | Most-cited hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetables-Other | 34 | — | 6,962 | unsafe color additive |
"1 refusal per X t": tonnes of the same product imported for every one, over the same 156 weeks. A dash means fewer than 5 in the window, or under 1,000 t a year imported, too few to rate; the total row pools every product that has import tonnes on record.
Recent refusals
- K64-3066307-5 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. FD&C Yellow No. 5 undeclared
- K64-3065975-0 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additive
- DS8-3034859-7 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additive
- K64-3065334-0 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additive
- 1FX-1073624-6 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNBI. unsafe color additive
- AQ1-7049768-2 BURDOCK, GOBO (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additive
- 799-9460018-0 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. color not declared
- K64-3062281-6 ENOKITAKE Import division DNEI. Listeria monocytogenes
- AFF-2018694-6 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additive
- 427-8311669-4 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- 427-8311700-7 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- K64-3061401-1 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- 8YW-0004739-8 GINGER ROOT, WITH SAUCE Import division DWCI. unsafe color additivecolor not declaredno food-canning registrationno process filing
- K64-3061488-8 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additive
- K64-3059978-2 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- 235-1744896-7 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- 235-1741515-6 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
- AFF-2018122-8 RADISH (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. not in English
- 235-1740486-1 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. FD&C Yellow No. 5 undeclared
- DZ1-1168655-3 GINGER ROOT (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. unsafe color additivecolor not declared
Data and downloads
Download all 79 entries (CSV) — every refusal behind this page, with its import division, FDA product code, charges and whether it was a hazard finding or paperwork.
The file holds entries up to 2026-10-21. To get new ones for Japan by email, watch Japan.
Japan country report since 2020 — every refusal by year, charge and import division →