Wild Meat Japan — Data Methodology
Wild Meat Japan aggregates data from official government registries, industry associations, and independent web verification — then scores and tiers every provider so you can trust what you see.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (農林水産省) maintains an official database of licensed wild game processing facilities under Japan's gibier promotion guidelines. Facilities in this registry have passed government inspection for hygiene, traceability, and handling standards. We treat MAFF registration as ground truth — no further verification is required for a provider to reach Tier 1 status.
Members of the Japan Gibier Promotion Association (日本ジビエ振興協会) and holders of the national gibier certification are treated as verified by association. The certification program requires processing facility standards, hygiene training, and traceability documentation.
Providers not in official registries are sourced from industry directories, regional government databases, and web research. These providers go through our automated vetting pipeline before appearing in the directory.
Every non-registry provider passes through an automated scoring pipeline that combines independent signals. Scores are computed out of 100 and mapped to four confidence levels:
Scoring signals (non-registry providers)
Every provider is assigned a tier based on data quality and verification status. Tier 3 providers are kept in our database but not shown in the public directory.
Tier 1 — Featured
MAFF-registered or association-certified, with a verified address. Or: independently verified website + confirmed species + confirmed address. These are the providers we're most confident about.
Tier 2 — Basic
Has confirmed species and address but lacks website verification or registry confirmation. Real businesses — just with less independently corroborated data.
Tier 3 — Monitor (hidden)
Minimal data, permanently closed businesses (per Google Places), or providers with signals that don't confirm gibier activity. Not shown publicly.
Provider data is re-verified periodically. Website availability and business status (via Google Places) are checked on each pipeline run. MAFF and association registry data is refreshed when new registry exports are published. If you find a provider that has closed, moved, or whose details are incorrect, contact us so we can update the record.