Japan	U.S.A.	Germany	France	Italy	Belgium	Spain
1985	0.70	20	57	72	59	57	ß|
1990	1.64	33	90	105	106	96	ß|
1995	5.18	42	89.1	110.4	142.8	115	92.4
1998	6.90	ß|	90.7	120	151.3	115	100.9

Source: The Mineral Water Association of Japan

5.) As a result of the growing interest in health and natural products, consumption of mineral water in Japan has caught on among the general public, and has increased almost every year since 1987. Due to the relative downturn after the surge in demand at the time of the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and the problem of contamination with foreign matter, however, there was a decline in demand for imported brands in 1996, and annual consumption per person dropped from 5.18??in 1995 to 5.01??in 1996. Subsequently, however, consumption has steadily increased, and the idea is starting to take root among Japanese consumers that water is not just something that comes out of the tap, but is also a product that can be bought and kept ready for use.

6.) Domestic output and imports of mineral water in Japan over the past few years have been as follows:

	Domestic Production	Imports	Total	Share of Imports
1986	8,164	150	8,314	1.8%
1989	10,377	1,002	11,379	8.8%
1992	30,687	2,987	33,674	8.9%
1995	42,015	10,838	52,853	20.5%
1996	43,548	9,199	52,747	17.4%
1998	65,991	10,672	76,663	13.9%
1999	85,791	11,132	96,923	11.5%

Source: The Mineral Water Association of Japan

Unit: million yen

7.) The main sources of imports of mineral water in recent years have been as follows:

	1998	1999 (share)
France	9,240	9,341 (83.9%)
U.S.A.	768	1,074 (9.7%)
Belgium	339	158 (1.4%)
Italy	133	102 (0.9%)
Canada	77	216 (1.9%)
U.K.	50	47 (0.4%)
Korea	42	151 (1.4%)
China	3	8 (0.1%)
Others	20	34 (0.3%)
Total	10,672	11,131 (100%)

Source: The Mineral Water Association of Japan

Unit: million yen

8.) The main reasons for the increase in imports of mineral water have been as follows:

a) The decline in the quality of Japanese tap water.

b) The increase in imports as a result of the amendment of the Food Hygiene Law in 1986, making it possible to import natural water that has not been heat-treated.

c) The shift in demand for soft drinks from carbonated drinks to fruit juice, and from tea-based drinks to lightly-flavored and unsweetened drinks.

d) The tightening of import quality control and food inspections because of problems with imports, such as contamination with foreign matter in 1996, which led to a recovery in safety levels and confidence on the part of consumers.

e) The launch in 1997 of sale of domestically produced mineral water in 500ml PET bottles, in which previously only imports had been bottled. (Japanese manufacturers had until then avoided their use due to concerns about the litter problem they would cause. They changed their position, however, as imports were already on sale in PET bottles and so creating a litter problem.)

f) The relatively long appreciation period (1 to 2 years) .

9.) Less than 10% of mineral water is used for commercial use, and most is for personal and household consumption.

10.) There was a boom in demand in November-December 1999 as people stockpiled food and drink in readiness for anticipated Y2K problems (computer malfunction fear) in 2000, and consumption doubled. But consumption fell at the beginning of 2000, however, due to heavy stocks.

11.) Annual Japanese consumption of mineral water is expected to grow to around 10 liters per person. Use is also expected to expand from just drinking purposes to use in food and drink, such as for making green and black tea, coffee and for washing rice to get tastier one. Importers are working to build up demand by stressing the wide range of flavors and fashionability of imported brands unavailable by domestic products, and imports are expected to enjoy strong growth in the future.