Japan News Update #25 (29 Mar - 11 Apr, 2022)
Stay updated on the latest agricultural news in Japan, that we publish every two weeks.
by Yuki Sano
Cultured meat in Japan
Kyoto-based precision instrument manufacturer Shimadzu Corp. is developing an automated machine using a 3D printer to produce cultured meat in cooperation with Osaka University and Tokyo-based consultant company Sigmaxyz Inc. The device under development will use a 3D printer to assemble cells and recreate the structure of meat.
Source: Japan’s Shimadzu working to develop 3D-printed meat
Nissin Foods, a Japanese food company, and a University of Tokyo research group have successfully created Japan's first edible cultured meat, produced by cultivating cells in a laboratory. While it is biologically identical to animal meat, Nissin Foods can currently make only small-sized portions. The group aims to create larger and thicker cultured steaks by March 2025.
Source: From Lab to Fork: Joint Project Creates Japan’s First Cultured Meat, Nissin’s website
Price hike in the new fiscal year
A wave of price hikes will hit food items in the new fiscal year beginning April due to the rising costs of raw materials. The upcoming price hikes include cheese, cooking oil for household use, and tomato ketchup. The price of Yaokin Co.'s popular snack "Umaibo," which has been sold for over 40 years for 10 yen without tax, will increase to 12 yen.
Source: Japan to see higher prices for food, daily goods from April
According to a report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), demand for soybean oil in Japan is spiking. Japan's oil crushers adjust the production of soybean oil, canola oil, and palm oil based on demand and procurement costs. With better crush margins, the USDA estimates that Japanese crushers will use 2.54 million tonnes of soybeans in 2021-22, up 7.4% from 2020-21. In contrast, rapeseed crush will be 2.2 million tonnes, down 6.7%, due to poor seed quality and low crush margins.
Source: Soybean oil demand spikes in Japan following COVID-19, USDA report
Future devices in Japan’s food industry
DayBreak Co., Ltd., a Japanese FoodTech startup company, will commercialize specialized refrigeration with IoT functions in October 2022. The company's advantage is its freezing technology, which can minimize the destruction of food cells and maintain the shape of food. However, according to the company, more than 90% of companies are not familiar with the system. Therefore, it will improve customer-first services by adding functions such as monitoring the freezer via the cloud and an AI-based automatic operation.
Source: Japan's startup tackles Frozen Tech
Homei Miyashita, a Meiji University professor, has developed a device called Taste the TV, with lickable screens to create a taste that imitates certain foods. Taste the food replicates the taste sample, and then sprays it onto a film on the screen or onto foods like rice and bread. Miyashita is working to commercialize it.
Source: Development of taste-recognizable displays, Taste the TV: Invention sends flavors straight to lickable screens
New technologies to automate human tasks
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have unveiled a robot that can execute delicate tasks using a "deep imitation learning" process. After several hundred demonstrations of peeling a banana, the robot generates enough data to learn and reproduce the behavior. They hope their method can train robots to do different simple "human" tasks.
Source: Japanese robot can peel bananas cleanly, most of the time
H2L, Inc., a Japanese startup, has developed a remote agricultural service called RaraaS (Remote Agricultural Robot as a Service). Users control a robot with a smartphone to pick strawberries remotely. The company also attempts to provide a system where the operator can feel the robot's grip on the strawberry.
Virtualization of fruits and vegetable markets
Shinmei HD, the largest rice wholesaler in Japan, is working with NTT, a telecommunications company, and Toka Osaka, a wholesaler of vegetables and fruits, to build a virtual agricultural products market. It matches sellers and buyers about a week in advance based on supply and demand forecasts, with the aim of implementation in 2024.