Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It is well known that Japan is the world leader in endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of early gastric cancer (EGC),thus the current status and executive standard in this area in Japan is worthy of studying. This paper reviewed numerous researches,reviews and epidemiological data, summarized the basic principles,standardized protocols,and the diagnostic algorithm and criteria and progress on endoscopic screening and diagnosis of EGC in Japan. Finally,the differences in endoscopic strategies for EGC existed between Japan and China were compared.