The Japanese Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiuMarc.) cultivars ‘Okitsu’, ‘Miyagawa’, ‘Miho’, and ‘Matsuyama’ were compar-ed with the standard industry cultivar ‘Silverhill’, over a 7-year period, at the Te Puke Research Orchard in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Fruit on all four Japanese cultivars reached commercial maturity 3–4 weeks before ‘Silverhill’. Their earliness, rounder fruit shape, and smoother rind, offer major advantages for potential export to Japan. Fruit quality (soluble solids (SS) content, SS:acid ratio (SS:A), juiciness) of ‘Okitsu’ was the highest of the Japanese group, followed closely by ‘Miyagawa’ and then ‘Miho’. ‘Matsuyama’ had the poorest fruit quality (early loss of expressible juice, early onset of puffiness, bumpy fruit rind, and high variability). ‘Okitsu’ fruit had a mean annual SS concentration rangeand SS:A range of 8.1–9.0% and 5.7:1–7.0:1 respectively, over the 4-year period 1984–87. These fruit quality values were less than those for ‘Silverhill’ and may not be high enough for the Japanese market, or as high as is desirable for thedomestic market However, it should be possible to improve fruit quality by cultural techniques and/or by growing these cultivars in districts with a warmer climate.