The only self-sufficient grain: Japan is pouring resources into rice flour expansion innovation in latest food security bid

Japan may be considered one of the most technologically advanced markets in Asia, but suffers from the issues of weak food security and a low self-sufficiency rate, which came prominently into the limelight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Government data from 2022 scored Japan’s overall food self-sufficiency rate the lowest among all developed markets at no more than 38%, a worrying statistic showing poor growth rate since 2021’s decade-low numbers​. Japan aspires to hit a national food self-sufficiency target of 45% on a calorie basis and 75% on a production basis by FY2030, which currently seems quite a ways off and has henceforth driven local leadership to consider more means of achieving self-sufficiency . The country is only 15% self-sufficient in rice, 26% self-sufficient in dairy and 9% self-sufficient in beef, according to 2023 local government data. “Rice is the only grain that Japan can hope to become self-sufficient in in the long run, hence we are intensively supporting ...