Under Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the list of economic growth priorities includes a focus on food tech and synthetic biology.
After decades of growth driven by the private sector, Japan’s government is taking charge of its economic future.
This month, the administration held the first meeting of the Japan Growth Strategy Headquarters, setting out measures to strengthen the country’s economic supply chain and mobilise investment through public-private partnerships.
Part of the effort is the creation of the Japan Growth Strategy Council, which aims to create increased income and consumer confidence through supportive and targeted policies.
“This cabinet will create a strong economy in order to turn concerns about current livelihoods and the future into hope. We will strategically deploy fiscal resources based on the concept of responsible and proactive fiscal policy,” said Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s new prime minister.
The plan has identified 17 priority areas, including AI, synbio and food tech – the latter will be led by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – with the government hoping to publish a growth strategy by June 2026.
What will the food tech strategy look like?
The draft documents only mention food tech at a high level, but they do provide some early-stage indications of what the strategy might include.
They describe the promotion of “new technologies designed to address challenges in the food manufacturing and restaurant industries”, adding that food tech will be used to create new products and services, and boost business development and scale-up.
The government also intends to intensively promote a “structural transformation in agriculture”, including the development and adoption of smart agricultural technologies and new crop varieties, and the cultivation of export-oriented production areas.
“With business phases such as research and development, commercialisation, business expansion, market development, and overseas expansion in mind, please incorporate measures to create and expand new demand, such as defence procurement and other government procurement, as well as regulatory reform,” Takaichi told ministers.
She also asked them to devise a public-private investment roadmap that includes timelines and target capital sums realised through these actions.
“To take preemptive measures to fundamentally strengthen supply capacity in response to risks and social challenges, we will promote strategic investment through public-private partnerships. We aim to further grow Japan’s economy by providing products, services, and infrastructure that contribute to resolving shared global challenges,” she said.
Strategy will take long-term view and benefit startups
Speaking at a press conference, Norikazu Suzuki, the agriculture minister in charge of the food tech growth strategy, outlined that the government would promote increased investment in the sector, including “fully enclosed plant factories and land-based aquaculture facilities that utilise new technologies”.
“We believe this is an area where we should focus our efforts. The basic plan, at least, has already been decided as a broad framework, and we have already decided on things like where we want to aim for in terms of food self-sufficiency,” he said. “However, we do not currently have a medium- to long-term strategy for each of these individual areas that we need to protect and attack, particularly food tech.”
With the Japan Growth Strategy Council, the government will discuss the kind of strategy it would like to employ over a 10-, 20-year span. And while Suzuki said the plan can’t be drawn up “immediately”, it would ultimately streamline things for food tech businesses.
“Until now, startups were unsure of where to turn for advice, wondering whether to go to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been clearly designated as the responsible party,” he noted.
“The Growth Strategy Headquarters has a set schedule, and we would like to move forward with our discussions within that schedule, or even sooner if possible.”
The country wants to become the most advanced bioeconomy society by 2030, and has announced an $8B fund to support biomanufacturing. And as the food strategy gets developed, it is already working on a regulatory framework for novel foods like cultivated meat.
“Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy and an R&D leader with top-tier research institutions and manufacturing facilities, all stemming from a vibrant commercial ecosystem recognised globally for its high quality,” Kimiko Hong-Mitsui, director of GFI Japan, told Green Queen last year.
“Japan now has the ability to invest significant resources into the fundamental R&D necessary to become a world leader in alternative proteins.”
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