Today we focus on the 13th briefing: Japan's Agricultural and Forestry Aquatic Ministry released data that Japanins grain self-sufficiency at 38%, below the target of 45% self-sufficiency.
There are two main forms of food self-sufficiency calculation in Japan: one based on heat and another based on production value. The heat-based self-sufficiency rate emphasizes the contribution of domestic agriculture to national dietary calories (such as grains, meat and related products), while the production value base considers the degree of self-sufficiency of market value for agricultural products. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Aquaculture of Japan, the heat self-sufficiency rate for the fiscal year 2024/2025 is stable at 38%, which remains unchanged for the fourth consecutive year, below the government’s 45% target for 2030. At the same time, the self-sufficiency rate for production value calculation has risen to 64%, up 3 percentage points from the previous year, which is mainly
In contrast, China’s self-sufficiency in rice, wheat and corn remained at a higher level, reaching 99.2%, 92.8% and 95.5%, respectively, and the meat self-sufficiency rate also remained at a higher level, about 90–95%, but due to import dependence on feed grains and soybeans, the overall calorie self-sufficiency rate is estimated at 70–75%.
There are many reasons for Japan's low food self-sufficiency rate. First of all, its domestic factors include the aging of farmers and labor shortage. The average age of agricultural practitioners in Japan is over 65 years old, and the younger generation is reluctant to engage in agriculture, which leads to the prominent problem of field inheritance. In addition, the arable land is limited. Japan has a small area, with a land area of about 378,000 square kilometers and only about 4.5 million hectares of arable land (about 12%). Most of them are hilly and mountainous, and the plains are scarce, which limits large-scale mechanized agriculture. In addition, there are many earthquakes, typhoons and floods in Japan. These events frequently damage farmland and infrastructure, resulting in fluctuations in food production.
Japan’s food market is also very vulnerable to global market volatility due to its large dependence on imports, with rising international food prices or interruptions in the supply chain having a significant impact, such as a surge in grain prices caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022, which will directly boost domestic food costs and increase inflation pressure.
Faced with these challenges, the Japanese government has formulated a series of policies to increase self-sufficiency. The Basic Agricultural Law takes self-sufficiency rate as a core indicator, aiming to achieve a self-sufficiency rate of 45% in calories and a self-sufficiency rate of 75% in production value by 2030. To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has promoted a number of measures, including subsidies for farmers to adopt advanced technologies, such as precision agriculture and smart farming, to increase yields and reduce labor dependence. The government also encourages increased wheat and soybean acreage and protects the domestic market from import shocks through tariffs. In addition, policies to deal with climate change include investing in the research and development of disaster-resistant varieties and infrastructure upgrades to mitigate the impact of natural disasters. However, judging from the current data, it seems that these measures have little effect.