Akio Kawai
Ohira Stockbreeding Industry Co., Ltd

Japan Black, which is widely raised as a typical beef breed in Japan, has been selected for production of high-quality beef. This breed has various characteristic contributing to beef production: a higher rate of deposition of intramuscular fat or marbling, a stronger heat resistance and a better performance of feed efficiency. Meanwhile, Japanese Brown hybridized from Simmental and Korean Cattle is preferable to the other native strains. In this paper, breeding history and present aspects of the Japanese Black breed, which is the major breed and distributed nationwide would be described to discuss on the production market of beef industry.
Key word: Japanese cattle, Japanese Black, beef grading, breeding management