EDI started in Japanese retail supply chain industries in 1980. In that year, the Japan Chain Store Association (JCA) established its JCA Protocol, which is the communication protocol for the electronic ordering system (EOS) used with customers via telephone lines. Subsequently, by 1984, the association established an ordering data format of a standardized slip especially designed for Japanese "turnaround" data accumulation system.
Through these JCA activities, the electronic ordering system has gradually spread throughout the entire distribution industry in Japan. Many of the Japanese retail supply chain industry are small- and mediumsized enterprises (SME), and the data exchange relay service called VAN contributed to the promotion of electronic ordering in these companies. In 1985, various VAN services started in each industry sector and region and continue to the present.
Since 1990, such electronic business has expanded to include shipping advice, reception, billing, and payment in addition to ordering. The term EDI, which means electronic management of overall business procedures, came to be used generally in the mid-90s. In response to this development of EDI, the GS1 Japan compiled Japanese retail supply chain industry standard messages based on EANCOM messages from 1994 to 96, as commissioned by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. These messages are called JEDICOS (Japan EDI for Commerce Systems).
Compared with the JCA Protocol, which is fixed-length format, the JEDICOS Messages have advantages in that they are applicable to more extensive procedures and have a more flexible message structure. However, as they were not enough attractive for the companies to make a big investment to switch to JEDICOS Messages at that time, the JCA Protocol has been mainly used until today.
According to our survey in December 2006, 64% of 211 retailers who have adopted on-line ordering use the JCA Protocol.

Consequently, we were confronted with the problem of IT not being able to flexibly deal with various environmental changes of the industry, and this has resulted in slowed promotion of efficiency throughout the entire retail supply chain. To improve this situation and establish a mechanism that is entirely optimal for consumers, many companies from each layer of the consumer goods manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers have joined together to consider standardization of the system for sharing product data among the companies and standardization of EDI message. These standardization activities through private initiative are funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and GS1 Japan is also supporting these efforts. Great success is being achieved by this public-private partnership.