What is the Flexographic Technical Association of Japan?

　 The Flexographic Technical Association of Japan is a group that consists of users and suppliers engaged in flexographic printing, who promote the dissemination, the exchange, the study, and the further development of flexographic printing technology.
  Flexographic printing (flexography) is considered to be a promising production system. Many advantages exist for this system and here are some to list a few: 1) it is able to achieve and maintain a level of quality that meets the needs of the consumers; 2) there is minimal amount of pollution generated in the production process; 3) it is far superior than other methods in terms of food hygiene; and 4) it is a production system which can not only be utilized for mass-production, but it can be adapted to low-volume, high-variety production systems as well.
  Because of the advantages which this flexographic printing system has to offer, this technology has achieved remarkable development in the West, and is being used in various industries. Also, to promote the research of flexography, there exists the Flexographic Technical Association in the United States, and the European Flexographic Technical Association in Europe.
  However, in Japan cannot deny the fact that the benefits of this technology have been limited to specific fields. The reason is that the research and development of flexographic technologies relied solely on the efforts of individual companies, that the exchange of ideas between related industries was lacking, and that the PR of the benefits of flexographic printing was insufficient.
  Therefore, volunteers came together to form the Flexographic Technical Association of Japan with the purpose of promoting technical exchange and diffusion of flexographic printing technologies. Presently, ｔhis association continues to work as a forum for technical exchanges for prepress and printing companies, equipment manufacturers, and trading companies who are involved in the flexography industry.