About the Award
Every outstanding product has a reason behind it. The vision its makers held, the care and attention paid to the people who would use it, and the story woven into it. Only when these layers come together does genuine quality emerge.
What we ask is not simply whether the specifications or the performance are superior. It is how deeply the person using it has been considered. The Japanese market — among the most demanding and finely attuned in the world — has always faced that question.
Regard for Excellence Awards turns that Japanese discernment toward products from around the world: a judged award built to find real value. Japan-validated quality, usability, sympathy, validity, uniqueness and sustainability — across these six perspectives, experts handle and experience each product, and at the centre of it all they look for OMOTENASHI: the care and attention paid to the user, and the story behind it.
“Regard” carries two meanings: respect, and consideration. The respect we pay to an outstanding product, and the consideration that product pays to the person using it. This award exists to bring those two kinds of regard together, and to turn them into trust that earns a place in markets worldwide.
Regard for Excellence Awards is organized and operated by the OMOTENASHI NIPPON Executive Committee, which works under the slogan “From Japan’s Hospitality to the World’s OMOTENASHI.” Through OMOTENASHI Selection, which the committee runs, more than 2,200 Japanese products have been selected over ten years and their value carried to audiences at home and abroad.
Combining that judging and certification experience with a network of global experts, we evaluate outstanding products from around the world through the lens of Japanese quality — turning recognition earned in Japan into a new mark of trust, and into further growth in every region and market.
Awarded 83
Gold 61
Special 5
Total 149
Awarded 1,495
Gold 631
Special 109
Total 2,235
Figures show OMOTENASHI Selection results.
Eligibility
Eligible entries
Outstanding products from brands based outside Japan, available for consumers to purchase or use by the day before the results are announced.
Who can apply
Applications are accepted from overseas brand owners, or from importers, distributors and other businesses in Japan that handle the product.
Benefits
Written feedback for businesses looking at sales channels inside and outside Japan.
An award event at a major airport in Japan, plus promotions using the Regard for Excellence Awards logo.
Retail in Asakusa and PR through media for foreign residents help build product awareness.
Trade shows and cross-border e-commerce outside Japan, matched to what your business needs.
Entry Benefit — Marketing
Feedback
Every entry that reaches the expert judging session - where products are assessed in person - receives scores and comments from the judges. Treat it as one form of market research, the kind that growing a business inside or outside Japan depends on, and put it to work in your next product decisions.
Feedback follows the evaluation criteria of Regard for Excellence Awards.
Award Benefit — PR & Promotion
Award Event
To mark the first edition of Regard for Excellence Awards, we plan to hold a special exhibition of winning products, talk sessions and more in the event space at a major airport in Japan.
The location draws a constant flow of business travellers and visitors from Japan and abroad. It gives people the chance to handle the winning products in person, and serves as the starting point for post-award promotion — building awareness and conversation.
* Planned for January–March 2027. The dates and programme are still being arranged; details will follow once confirmed.
Images are for illustration only.
Press Release
What we distribute
Sales Tools
Every award winner receives a certificate and a trophy to use in their promotion.
Images are for illustration only.
Award recipients may run promotions using the Regard for Excellence Awards logo — on your own website, product packaging, in-store displays, catalogues and any other medium.
Images show how OMOTENASHI Selection recipients have used the logo.
Award Benefit — Japan Market
Pop-up Store
Products that win the Highest Gold award are displayed and sold for two weeks at ENGAWA ASAKUSA, our street-level store in Asakusa, Tokyo, where visitors from Japan and abroad gather.
A handling fee applies to sales.
Some products may be promoted rather than sold, for reasons such as shelf life.
Display and sales take place at the dedicated table in the centre of the store.
Tokyo Weekender
Tokyo Weekender — founded in 1970 and the longest-running English-language lifestyle publication in Japan — features award-winning products and the brands behind them.
Its editorial team, largely Western, goes past features and specifications to the development story, the maker's intent and the cultural value, then reframes all of it for readers living outside Japan. High-quality English content carries your brand story to international residents, visitors to Japan and readers overseas.
For overseas brands it builds credibility within the Japanese market — a branding opportunity that works on both sides of the border.
POINT
ANA Tsubasa no Oukoku
A page introducing your product in Tsubasa no Oukoku, the ANA Group in-flight magazine. Your product reaches passengers across a wide set of touchpoints — on board, in lounges, and through the ANA app and website.
POINT
Sample images show previous features.
Paid placement, subject to review.
Award Benefit — Beyond Japan
JAPAN SELECTION 2025
We exhibited at JAPAN SELECTION 2025 in Bangkok, a trade show dedicated to Japanese products. It was OMOTENASHI Selection's first Southeast Asian trade show, and we held meetings with major local conglomerates and Japanese-affiliated retailers. Several exhibitors closed deals after the show and began selling in Thailand.
POINT
Shoppe Object
A B2B trade show held twice a year in New York. Brands with strong design and storytelling — lifestyle goods and fashion above all — gather here, creating meetings with discerning buyers and openings for overseas distribution. We support building sales channels in North America.
POINT
Live Commerce
Live commerce puts your product in front of an audience in real time. Targeting Asian markets, we introduce products with the immediacy and two-way conversation only live streaming allows — carrying the feel of a product and the story behind it, which text and images struggle to convey.
POINT
All of the above are examples of past initiatives.
The programmes on this page are paid. Free programmes are also available; we will share pricing and conditions separately.
Evaluation Criteria
Across six perspectives, our experts handle and experience each product. At the centre of it all is OMOTENASHI — the care and attention paid to the user, and the story behind it.
Judges
Regard for Excellence Awards brings together specialists who know the Japanese market intimately, alongside experts from Japan and abroad working across international media, travel, design, marketing and product development. They evaluate products from many angles — not only quality and function, but design, usability, cultural appeal, storytelling, communication, fit with the Japanese market, and potential for global growth.
Encountered the difficulties facing traditional crafts through work restoring historic buildings, and founded KAZAANA in 2017. He runs BECOS, a media commerce platform dedicated to Made in Japan, carrying Japanese craftsmanship to audiences at home and abroad through cross-border sales, product development and crowdfunding.
Focus：Marketing
Assesses whether a product can keep being chosen in Japanese and overseas markets, looking at target audience, brand story, price, distribution and communication.
Senior editor at Tokyo Weekender, Japan's oldest English-language lifestyle publication. He has written and edited for major media in Japan and abroad, including The Japan Times and CNN, and continues to bring Japanese culture and lifestyle to international readers.
Focus：International perspective
Assesses, from a non-Japanese point of view, whether a product's appeal lands intuitively with international consumers, and whether its brand story, design and communication resonate in global markets.
Works mainly in food and beverage at Isetan Mitsukoshi, covering product development, restaurant and brand development, and business planning. In alcoholic beverages, responsible for product development from concept design through to launch; in store development, for branding that cuts across customer experience and physical space.
Focus：Product development and branding
Looks beyond quality and function to marketability, price validity, distinctiveness, story and how clearly a product reaches customers, assessing the potential for lasting support in the Japanese market.
A creative director behind numerous tourism campaigns and international video productions, including work for Tokyu Hotels and ANA. His international tourism film for Oita Prefecture won the Grand Prix in the film category at the CJPF AWARD, hosted by Japan's Cabinet Office.
Focus：Creative
Assesses whether a product's appeal and brand story come across clearly through design, film and visual expression, and whether that expression moves consumers in Japan and abroad.
As secretary-general of OMOTENASHI Selection, which discovers and promotes outstanding products from across Japan, he has overseen the judging and operation of a great many award-winning products and brands. Working with companies, local governments and judges, he has built the systems that carry uniquely Japanese value to audiences at home and abroad.
Focus：Brand value and overall assessment
Draws on extensive judging and operational experience at OMOTENASHI Selection to assess quality, distinctiveness, story and global potential as a whole.
Judges are subject to change.
Selection Method
Send your product to the venue we specify, where judges evaluate it in person. We notify the venue only to entries that pass the internal review. Sampling for judges is also possible.
You do not need to attend in person.
Schedule
Monday, 31 August 2026 - Friday, 2 October 2026
Enter your details in the application form. Our office reviews the entry requirements. No fee applies at this stage.
Early October 2026
Only entries that pass the document review pay the judging registration fee. Products are shipped to the venue we specify. A fee applies only after passing the document review.
Mid to late October 2026
Japanese and international expert judges assess the physical products.
Early November 2026
Every entry that reached the judging session receives scores and comments from the judges, as marketing feedback.
Mid to late December 2026 (planned)
Once recipients pay the award registration fee, use of the award logo and the various promotional programmes begin.
Fees
The fees for Regard for Excellence Awards are set out below. In the first year you pay a judging registration fee if your entry advances to the judging session, and an award registration fee if it wins. From the second year onward, no additional fee applies unless the entry's specification changes or you use a special award logo.
| Entry | Judging registration fee | Award registration fee |
|---|---|---|
| Free | JPY 100,000 (excl. tax)*1, *2 | JPY 200,000 (excl. tax)*3 |
No fee applies if your entry is not selected.
Track Record
Over ten years we have selected more than 2,200 products from across Japan. A few of them are shown here.
GLOBAL-IST
YOSHIDA METAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD. (Niigata)
Natural Hot Spring Heiwajima
KEIKYUKAIHATSU Co., Ltd. (Tokyo)
SUNTORY SHOCHU THE OSUMI
SUNTORY LIMITED (Tokyo)
Matsuzakaya Honten Hakone
KINNOTAKE CO., LTD. (Kanagawa)
ceramic mimic fabric
BUNZAN LTD. (Saga)
GINZA LAMB SHABU KINNOME
GOLDEN EYE SPARK Co., Ltd. (Tokyo)
NOUGAT°C Sandwich
Tenma Dining, Inc. (Tokyo)
Heian Costume Experience Studio
Iyasaka Co., Ltd. (Kyoto)
Kikyou Shingen Mochi
KIKYOUYA (Yamanashi)
Daruma painting experience
Imai Daruma Shop NAYA Co., Ltd. (Gunma)
The Villa Soso
Seikoudou Partners INC. (Kyoto)
Kintsugikurashi
Kintsugikurashi (Yagokoro Co., Ltd.) (Tokyo)
FAQ
We look forward to receiving your entry.
If anything is unclear, please get in touch.
