Vol. 7, Issue 1 | March 2015

Report from Japan

By Akihiro Ozaki

A lot of snow has been falling in the northern and mountainous areas of Japan in this year. It is a very cold year, but there have been many days with nice weather in the plains from the east to the west of Japan, because many customers are coming to the store.

We held what will become the first industry certification, called “Five Star Flower Shop” in Japan. Japan’s garden industry is not in a good situation now. Therefore we have done the exchange event to activate our industry. There are not such strict standards and scoring methods to the certification. It has decided that recommended by about 40 of the auction company of a good garden centers and flower shops which have been many contributions and positive effort. It was held at the GIFU Prefecture which is a major producer of potted plants in Japan and gathered 400 people; 108 shops have been honoured. Retail stores were received many positives in this exchange event. We showed a lot of excitement.