GM cotton has not been approved for cultivation in Japan, but when the Japan Family Farmers Movement (Nominren) Food Research Laboratory analyzed 16 samples on 7 December 2018, three samples turned out to be GM cotton. (See BJ January 2018) One of the three samples was upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) that the laboratory had been asked to analyze by a farmer who was planning to cultivate it. Another sample was one that had been grown by an elementary school and which, on inspection, was thought to be also upland cotton. The third sample was one where the fibers of the stalk and other parts of the plant were to be used to make paper products. MAFF will now begin to determine the cause of the GM cotton being grown in Japan, but it is thought that they originate from GM seeds imported from China, which were at one time sold in Japan.