Malting barley breeding in Japan has witnessed major changes in the past 15 years. Breeding research programs to identify agronomical and quality-related problems, including the spread of new strains of the barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV), the excessive degradation of malt protein, and environmental stresses such as frost damage, wet-injury and grain damages (hull-crack and ventral swelling) have been introduced with consideration to the situation of malting barley production in Japan. Further, promising high-quality breeding lines such as lipoxygenase deficient lines and those with extremely high diastatic power or low protein content have also been described.