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Japan’s agricultural policy towards food security improvement. Key strategies, initiatives and outcomes
 
Код статьиS086919080029514-2-1
DOI10.31857/S086919080029514-2
Тип публикации Статья
Статус публикации Опубликовано
Авторы
Емельянова Олеся Николаевна 
Должность: Research Fellow
Аффилиация: Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Economics
Адрес: Russian Federation, Moscow
Название журналаВосток. Афро-Азиатские общества: история и современность
ВыпускВыпуск 1
Страницы153-164
Аннотация

Food security in Japan has been under observation of analytics in both Japan and abroad as it is one of the key national security issues. Leading academic researchers of this issue in Japan include Suzuki N., Takeya T., Yamamoto R. and Oguchi H. However, the main focus of their analysis is the social aspect. The English language literature provides more materials on food security problem, but the situation is changing faster than information flows across the border. It means that the most up-to-date resources for analysis of the topic are the documents of the Japanese official institutions. 

Based on the Global Food Security Index (which takes into account the issues of food affordability, availability, quality and natural resources resilience), Japan is considered to be 6th most self-sufficient country in the world. However, the Japanese government still sees the national food security issue as problematic for the country’s stability due to heavy dependency on agricultural import. 

To overcome the trend, Japan utilizes multiple mechanisms to eventually improve agricultural self-sufficiency. The main focus is kept on the following 4 critical levers – i) productivity improvement, ii) agricultural employment improvement, iii) demand shift towards traditional dietary and new markets opening and iv) SDG agenda. The research also provides a case study of technologies implemented in the agricultural field in Japan in order to improve the self-sufficiency level. Moreover, emphasis is made on the government policies to develop the local market and to build the new markets abroad for the domestic farmers’ production expansion.

Ключевые словаJapan, Agriculture, Sustainability, Food Security, Economic Policy, SDG agenda
Получено09.02.2024
Дата публикации02.03.2024
Кол-во символов34731
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Оглавление

Introduction
Overview of the agricultural industry
Human resources issue
Building new markets for the farmers
Measures to redirect domestic food consumption towards locally produced products
Measures to achieve export expansion
Conclusions
1

Introduction
2 Internationally Japan is considered to be a country with a high level of food security and widespread access to quality nutrition as per Global Food Security Index (GFSI) accepted at the International Food Summit back in 1996. The Index takes food availability, affordability, quality and safety, natural resources resilience into consideration. In 2022 Japan ranked #6 globally, improving from #8 in 2021 and #11 in 2012 [Global Food Security Index 2022, 2023]. However, the Japanese government sees a serious challenge in the sphere of food security due to a low production self-sufficiency index which has been declining over recent decades. Until as late as the 1980s, when the quarters on some import products were imposed, Japan had suffered from low level of food self-sufficiency [Markarian, 2017, p. 49]. Calories-based self-sufficiency index (how much calories from the daily diet is produced inside the country) was just 37% in 2018, having declined since 1961, when it had been 78% (fig. 1). According to this factor, Japan ranks one of the worst in the world and can not ensure independence from agricultural import, like, for example, the US or Australia (excluded from the chart due to visual limitation – average index 230 and growing).
3
1-1

Figure 1. Self-sufficiency index by country, calories based.
4

Overview of the agricultural industry
5 There are several critical factors that affect the negative dynamic in agricultural industry. The first and foremost self-sufficiency reduction is related to the change in consumption structure. If in 1961, most of the food consumption remained traditional for the Japanese dietary customs, including mostly rice [Assmann, 2017, p. 121], over the stated period it has changed dramatically (fig. 2).
6
2-1

Figure 2. Change in food consumption habits in Japan (1961–2019).
7 The share of rice has dropped from about 50% to just 22% while the importance of fats and oils, meat, and milk products has significantly grown. The growing demand in these segments, which have never been a core part of the Japanese diet, can not be fulfilled solely by the domestic agriculture due to the peculiarities of the lands and soils, geographical location of the country and other factors. Taking this into consideration, the country can hardly become self-sufficient in the current environment with the existing consumption pattern (fig. 3).
8
3-1

Figure 3. Self-sufficiency of Japan by product.
9 In addition, the country faces reduction of the population in general as well as its aging, which has a direct impact on agriculture. The total number of people involved in agriculture has decreased by almost 4 times over the past 30 years. Mainly the older population works in agriculture, with a very fast reduction of the younger generation involved. In 1990, the share of people younger than 49 years old was approximately 44%, but it has reduced to 28% in 2010 (fig. 4). In the modern period, the Japanese government has even reconsidered borders of age groups for statistics. The share of younger generation continues to plummet (from 14% of
10
4-1

Figure 4. Population engaged in agriculture by age group (thousands).
11 Another affecting trend is contraction of the cultivated land itself. This can be linked to a decrease in the number of farmers, partly due to the Fukushima nuclear accident that resulted in the nuclear contamination of the soil in Japan and a decline in the quality of the soil itself (fig. 5), which requires decent amount of fertilizers and is difficult to cultivate.
12
5-1

Figure 5. Area of cultivated land (thousands hectares).
13 The total area of cultivated land in 1985 was approximately 5.4 million ha. By 2000, it has decreased to 4.8 million ha, and today it is just 4.4 million ha. In 2014, only 12% of the land in Japan was arable [Nihon tokei nenkan, 2022]. For a country with deep roots in agriculture, which has managed to provide self-sufficiency for a long period of its history, it is a heavy hit. Though the share of agriculture in the GDP is approximately 1% of the total economy (5.6 billion yen in agriculture out of 562 trillion yen total GDP in 2021), it is still highly important for the national stability and security [Nihon tokei nenkan, 2022].
14 Last but not least, the government realizes the challenge of long-term sustainability of the agriculture sector in the country. This is related to soil sustainability and waste management.
15 Most soils in Japan are difficult to use – about 31% of Japan is Andosols, 38% is Cambisols (mostly located in the north of the country) and 13% is Fluvisols. Andosols and Fluvisols are rich with minerals and microelements, however, they are difficult for agriculture in the long term. Andosols are rapidly losing minerals and not replenishing easily, thus, they cannot be used every year without fertilizers. Fluvisols are located in the areas with a high risk of flooding, which is challenging to predict especially in a country like Japan. These soils are widely used for agriculture around the world, though they are more difficult to cultivate outside of Tropic and Subtropic areas which is the case for Japan [Oguchi, 2021, p. 27]. The government recognizes that these peculiarities of Japanese soils are a long-term challenge to the land sustainability.
16 In the last years, after making note of all critical agricultural challenges, the government has made solid progress in reverting negative agriculture output trends. The total agriculture output had been steadily reducing from 1990 to 2010, but since then it has started to grow (fig. 6). The agricultural data used in the graph is provided by the Statistics Bureau of Japan, estimated in nominal prices. If we recalculate the data into real values, applying the deflator provided by the Cabinet Office of the National Account of Japan (fig. 7), the described tendency will be reinforced.

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