Japan’s agricultural policy towards food security improvement. Key strategies, initiatives and outcomes

Abstract

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.