Abstract: Japan is always a model for food safety management in Asian countries, and the field of health and functional foods is no exception. Since Japan had an early start in the field of health functional foods, it has formed a comprehensive governance framework system from governmental governance to industry associations, food production enterprises and consumer governance for the management of the health functional foods market, which provides a good paradigm for the transformation of China’s health food market from traditional mechanical single governmental governance to social governance. Therefore, this paper aims to find a way to improve the overall management level of China’s health food market by examining how Japan uses its government, health and functional food industry associations, food production enterprises, and consumers to conduct comprehensive management of its health food market in a multi-center and multi-dimensional manner.

Key words: Japan, health and functional food, comprehensive management, enlightenment