Thank you for visiting the OLIVE JAPAN International Olive Oil Competition(the “Competition”) website. Please read the following rules carefully. It is necessary to agree and accept these contest rules to make your entry to the Competition.
1, ELIGIBILITY
The Competition only accepts the ONLINE registration made by entrants with Extra virgin olive oils produced in the crop year of 2024/2025 (processed during May 2024 – April 2025). The products should be the commercial products which once sold in the actual market. The entrants can be made by individual producers, producers’ associations and authorized distributors.
2, ONLINE REGISTRATION
All entrants must fill out the ONLINE entry form appearing in this website. Upon submitting the ONLINE registration form and making registration fee payment, those entrants will receive email confirmation from OLIVE JAPAN. Once the entry confirmation is sent to the entrant, it is not possible to refund the registration fee under any circumstances.
REGISTRATION Deadline: ONLINE Registration should be made by New MAY 16, Friday, 2025.
3, REGISTRATION FEE
The cost to enter the competition is or €250 or US$260 per each olive oil entered. (If the entry made in Japan, the entry fee is 27,500Yen.) In the case of entering with 5 olive oil in same entry form with same producer, the entry fee will be discounted to 4 olive oil entry equivalents. All payments must be made by Credit Card or wire transfer to OLIVE JAPAN within 10 days after the registration had been made and all the bank charges for the transfer must be paid by contestants. Registration fees are non-refundable once the payment had been made.
If the Registration Fees will be wired, it should be paid to:
Bank Name; The MUFG Bank
SWIFT Code: BOTKJPJT or BOTKJPJTXXX ( i.e. There is no IBAN Code in Japan, and no VAT number)
Bank Branch Name and Address; Kyobashi (Branch # 023) 1-7-3, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 JAPAN
Account No; 023-0070643
Beneficiary Acccount Name and Address; OLIVE JAPAN
3-4-1, Kyobashi, Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031 JAPAN tel +81 (3) 3271-0808
4, SAMPLES
All the contest samples should be exact same as the commercial product in the market. All the bottles or tins should be properly labeled with the notes of brand name, product name and its contents quantity.
As per 1 entry, the contestant should send the following numbers of the bottles (or tins).
7 bottles (or tins) if 100ml – 150ml bottle (or tin) contents, or
5 bottles (or tins) if 200ml – 250ml bottle (or tin) contents, or
3 bottles (or tins) if 375ml – 500ml bottle (or tin) contents, or
2 bottles (or tins) if over 750ml bottle (or tin) contents.
Once the samples are received by OLIVE JAPAN they shall not be returned by any reason.
5, SAMPLE SHIPMENT DEADLINE
Samples must be received on or before MAY 20, 2025
Under the hectic air freight situations, international logistics may be delay a lot. We would accommodate to the late arrived samples as much as we can, please ship your samples as soon as possible.
It is the contestant responsibility to make proper shipment of their samples while OLIVE JAPAN has no responsibility for delayed delivery, lost packages and broken bottles.
6, SHIPPING AND RECEIVING
All samples must be shipped prepaid. OLIVE JAPAN is not responsible for any customs charges and taxes. Shipping costs are not refundable.
The Samples should ship to:
The Olive Oil Sommelier Association of Japan
3-4-1, Kyobashi, Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031 JAPAN
tel +81 (3) 3271-0808
The OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Olive Oil Competition will acknowledge receipt of olive oil. The OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition is not responsible for any shipping or customs charges and taxes. All samples must be shipped properly to above mentioned address while OLIVE JAPAN never collects, picks up samples from anywhere. OLIVE JAPAN has no responsibility to make samples’ custom clearance and its duties nor to prepare adequate shipping documents. Therefore, a licensed broker, or international courier services with applicable importing licenses must be strongly recommended to clear international shipments of samples.
INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS REQUIRE SAMPLE WAIVER; All sample shipments to JAPAN must be clearly decrared as “SAMPLE, NO COMMERCIAL VALUE, NOT FOR SALE” in the applicable commercial invoices and pro-forma invoices and the packing list attached with the samples.
COTESTANTS MUST DESIGNATE THAT CONTESTANTS WILL BE CHARGED FOR ALL JAPANESE CUSTOMS CHARGES AND TAXES, VAT AND ANY HANDLING CHARGES ON THEIR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING DOCUMENTS OR AIRWAY BILL if the documents should not be properly prepared. The OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition and the Olive Oil Sommelier Association of Japan(the “OSAJ”) is not responsible for JAPANESE Customs & Brokerage Charges and if this is not done properly, such shipment could be delayed until the organizer receives payment for these charges. If the shipment is large enough for commercial airfreight, the organizer must collect estimated tax, duty and customs charges in advance. The commercial value for samples is typically one Euro per bottle and this should be stated on a proforma invoice.
It is strongly recommend to use DHL or UPS, and do NOT use Fedex(including TNT), EMS nor national Postal Services as there occurred so many troubles in past.
The OLIVE JAPAN warehouse is climate controlled and secure. Once your samples are received by OLIVE JAPAN, you will receive a confirmation by email.
Samples will be masked with opaque wrapping and assigned a random code.
7, JUDGES
The Competition Panel Organizing Committee (the “Panel Committee”) shall determine the Jurors from the candidate lists provided by the OSAJ. The Panel Committee shall organize an appropriate number of panels for the Competition judgment and each panel shall consist of one panel leader with at least 2 panel members.
The Competition judges use a modified 100 point International Olive Council (IOC) Mario Solinas Score Sheet.
A score of 64 or lower (no medal) indicates that the judges found a defect in an oil. The nature of this defect will be noted in the records. This information and other judges’ comments will be available to the producer. In order to ensure confidentiality, comments about an oil will be released only to the producer .
A score of 65 or higher will be awarded SILVER Medal Awards and 76 or higher will be awarded GOLD Medal Awards, a score of 86 or higher and so recommended by more than 8 judges will be awarded PREMIER Medal Awards.
OLIVE JAPAN judges all the registered olive oil received by the designated deadline only for the purpose of the Competition and never intends to determine product quality standards. The OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition office and its organizer, the Olive Oil Sommelier Association of JAPAN (the “OSAJ”) shall not be responsible for any loss or damages of the entrants caused by the Competition results in any events.
8, PRIZES
The winners will be published on this website by June 6th, 2025.
The prizes for the winning oils shall be awarded by the Chairman of OLIVE JAPAN.
The winners will be provided the electric data of the medal logo design, official certificate and paper certificate. In addition to this, the PREMIER medal winners will be provided the official TROPHY.
The winners may mention the prize on labels of the extra virgin olive oils from the same batch as the winning sample.
Winners who wish to put the medal logo on the labels and products brochures of the winning extra virgin olive oil, will be permitted to utilize the electric data of medal design, award certificate and OLIVE JAPAN logo which the Competition provides to winners, on their product label and its brochure. This rights are only permitted for the extra virgin olive oils (and flavored oils) from the same batch as the winning sample. If winners would put the medal design on their brochure, they must mention the Year of the medal provided. It is prohibited to re-circulate those electric data of the medal logo, award certificate and OLIVE JAPAN logo provided by the Competition to any third bodies without written consent of the Competition. In the case of winners’ abuse of prizes and medal design shall be subject to divest the awards already given.
All the results which the judges of the Competition determine and are announced to public shall be final, and the Competition does not accept any inquiry for re-tasting and/or any further analysis.
9, OTHER RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
The Competition has the right to do an analytical control of any awarded olive oils and the commercial products distributed to the market under same product name/brand name as the awarded products by sending a sample to a laboratory and to certify that it complies with all characteristics of its grade. A sample of all award winners will be kept during 60 days for it to be controlled by any Japanese organization in case to need for any validation. If there are any results that differ from any claim made in the entry form, the Competition reserves any rights to divest the awards already given. Three months after the competition, all spare samples will be sent to OSAJ school or other academies for their study.
Entrants are responsible for all details they provide on their entry forms. The technical committee has the right to consult with any legal organization to verify authenticity. It will always be tested against the original sample kept by the committee.
10, BINDING FORCE
This Contest Rules(the “Rules”) were made on November 23rd, 2013 and revised on November 10th, 2024, and are applicable for all the entries to OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition binding with the Competition Panel and Judge Protocol on the same website here. The English and Japanese written documents of the Rules will be considered official for the competition.
11, TRADEMARK VIOLATION
“OLIVE JAPAN”, “The Olive Oil Sommelier Association of JAPAN” and the “Olive Oil Sommelier” are all registered trademark by the Japanese government officially acknowledged. All the rights for those trademarks are reserved by the Olive Oil Sommelier Association of JAPAN. If the entry(ies) shall be made by any body who violates above Rights of the organizer, OLIVE JAPAN never accept such entry(ies) and in the case of the samples have already received and fee has already paid, OLIVE JAPAN has no responsibility to return them to such entrant(s).
This Contest Rules(the “Rules”) were made on November 23rd, 2013 and revised on November 10th, 2024, and are applicable for all the entries to OLIVE JAPAN International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition binding with the Competition Panel and Judge Protocol on the
If there are any legal disputes with the Competition the only competent courts is the one from Tokyo, JAPAN, regardless contestants’ nationality.
