Japan News Update #24 (15-28 Mar, 2022)

Tohoku earthquake of 16 March 2022 impact on food supply

An earthquake with an intensity of 6+ on the Japanese seismic scale hit Fukushima and Miyagi on late 16 March. Still, there were no significant disruptions to the supply of agricultural and fisheries products. The Sendai Central Wholesale Market in Miyagi prefecture traded as usual, and The Toyosu market in Tokyo also saw steady arrivals. However, some fish and meat products experienced delays in arrival due to the effects of the congested motorways.

Source: Tohoku Earthquake impact on food supply chain

New efforts to reduce food waste and carbon emissions

Major Japanese food companies attempt to reduce food waste by attaching new added value to their products. In March 2019, seasoning manufacturer Mitsukan Holdings began selling concentrated vegetable pastes and vegetable snack bars that use whole cores, skins and seeds of vegetables such as corn and beet.

Source: Japan Food Makers Exploring Ways to Reduce Food Waste

Initiatives to reuse cooking oil and food waste as biofuel are spreading among Japan's restaurant chains and food manufacturers. Japanese manufacturers and transport companies are exploring the use of biofuels made from euglena microalgae and waste cooking oil to reduce carbon emissions.

Source: Japanese businesses eye biofuels in decarbonization drive

Japanese Government moves to change labelling in the food industry

The Consumer Affairs Agency and the Ministry of Fisheries have announced that they will revise food labelling guidelines following the suspicions of misleading origin labelling for clams from Kumamoto prefecture. The revised guidelines will require importers and domestic producers to present a certificate of origin for the clams and preserve documents showing their origin.

Source: Govt to tighten guidelines on labeling of asari clams

On 21 March, the Japanese Government lifted voluntary restrictions on opening hours, which had been a major hindrance to the dining industry, and lifted coronavirus restrictions throughout Japan. Tokyo and 17 other prefectures are no longer subject to so-called quasi-emergency measures, which require bars and restaurants to close early, reduce customer numbers and stop serving alcoholic drinks. It has been almost two and a half months since these restrictions were last fully lifted, during which period there has been a decline in new cases of COVID-19 infection in Japan.

Source: Japan drops COVID restrictions on bars and restaurants nationwide

New tech in production and the foodservice industry

A research group including the University of Tokyo, developed a phenotyping rover that could be quickly introduced to a field and that is optimized for size-limited breeding fields. In addition, the group open-sourced the field rover system to allow anyone to build their own at low cost and make modifications easily.

Source: Development of a field phenotyping rover

FOODTECH Capital Co., Ltd., a Japanese SaaS company for restaurants, raised JPY 140 million in seed rounds. The company developed a SaaS product, delico, a centralized order management service for food delivery services. With delico, restaurant outlets can take orders from all delivery platforms on a single tablet.

Source: Food-Tech SaaS for restaurants raises ¥140 million (Japanese)

Japanese firms’ alternative food trend

Japanese food manufacturers have begun offering plant-based alternatives to dairy and other food products, to capitalize on growing consumer interest in vegetable-based diets. For example, Kewpie Co., a Japanese condiment company and Kagome Co., a tomato-based food manufacturer, have developed and launched egg-free products.

Source: Firms launch plant-based alternative foods