Integrated control and integrated pest management in Japan: the need for various strategies in response to agricultural diversity

An urgent need exists in Japan to reduce the use of crop protection chemicals, increase food safety, find an alternative to methyl bromide, and adopt sustainable agricultural practices. Integrated control and integrated pest management (IPM) are powerful approaches to resolve these problems. Integrated control, as described by Stern et al. (Hilgardia, 29: 81–101, 1959), was translated as sougouboujo in Japanese by Japanese entomologists and has become popular. However, this concept was first reported for rice diseases in Japan by Ito (Itoh, 28:1–204, 1932), to provide preventive control of three principal rice diseases using a combination of measures that inhibited primary infection. Many scientists in Japan have conducted research on sougouboujo. The term is still used by Japanese plant pathologists even though the Japanese government developed IPM guidelines in the 2000s. The sougouboujo concept described by Ito may be considered a type of preventive IPM based on biology. With this previous work as a foundation, research on sougouboujo in Japan is introduced as representing “integrated control.” In this report, I introduce the history of IPM in Japan including the new system of checklists based on the IPM guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and a new IPM strategy to manage diseases caused by soilborne pathogens.