Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi downplayed criticism on Friday over his ministry's handling of a licensing deal for a prized grape variety that sparked an official protest from producers.

At a news conference the day before, the governor of Yamanashi Prefecture, a major producer of Shine Muscat grapes, criticized the ministry for entering discussions with New Zealand about growing the prized fruit without the prior knowledge or input of producers. Gov. Kotaro Nagasaki, along with a representative of the local agricultural cooperative, met with Koizumi to lodge the complaint and urge steps to expand the market for exports, rather than offering a cultivation licence for production abroad.

Koizumi, who is running for Liberal Democratic Party president, said his ministry did not intend to grant a cultivation license without consulting producers.

"Gov. Nagasaki has requested that we increase the number of countries to which Japan can export Shine Muscat grapes, and I completely agree," he said.

"We would not proceed with licensing without the understanding of producing regions and governors." He noted that granting licenses was a basic policy approach approved by the Cabinet earlier this year for certain products.

The Shine Muscat variety was developed over a period of about 30 years, starting in the late 1980s, by national agricultural bodies and has been marked as a promising export product.

Its seedlings, however, were initially not protected outside Japan and made their way to China and South Korea, which are exporting the product to Southeast Asia. Japan passed legislation in 2021 to restrict overseas sales of the seedlings.