Japan’s government has laid out a draft public-private investment roadmap across 17 sectors for 2040, totalling $2.3T. As part of this, it’s eyeing $6.2B for novel food technologies.
Japan has taken a big step in its bid to carve out a dominant space in the future food sector.
The country’s government has released a draft public-private investment roadmap, projecting cumulative financing of ¥370T ($2.29T) across 17 strategic sectors until 2040.
Of these areas, four are related to food tech, accounting for a total of ¥9.7T ($60B) in investment, with ¥1T ($6.2B) of the funding allocated to new foods.
It’s the result of the Food Tech Working Group established by the government last December, through which it has been holding discussions with industry experts about the investment plan.
”As a result, we have been able to solidify this public and private investment roadmap at this stage,” said Norikazu Suzuki, Japan’s agriculture minister. ”What is important now is to make this roadmap a reality, rather than letting it remain just a pipe dream.”
The country wants to become the most advanced bioeconomy society by 2030, and has previously announced an $8B fund to support biomanufacturing, before identifying food tech as a priority growth sector.
Japan targets animal-free proteins and functional nutrition
According to the draft document, the new foods vertical includes animal-free proteins and functional nutrition products, with the government keen on leveraging the country’s strengths in fermentation, seasoning technologies, rice flour products, and marine ingredients.
Japan plans to initially target health- and climate-conscious consumers in Europe and the US with these future foods, before expanding into Asia. It’s aiming for ¥3T in sales from new foods across domestic and international markets by 2040.
Before the draft was published, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held a tasting event for food tech products for ministers and officials from various embassies, with an eye to boosting the demand for these innovations.
While the new foods vertical earmarked by the government does not include cultivated meat, the country has been advancing its bid to bring locally produced cell-cultured products to market.
The government and industry stakeholders – including the Consumer Affairs Agency’s Subcommittee on Newly Developed Foods and the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture – are working to establish a regulatory framework for the approval of cultivated meat.
Aside from the funding roadmap, the Food Tech Public-Private Council launched two new working groups, focused on freshness preservation technologies and fermentation-derived foods.
The latter’s goal is to enable widespread adoption of fermented food ingredients using koji and mushroom mycelium through the discussion of topics like labelling, safety, and consumer understanding.
Investment in food tech requires a ’multifaceted evaluation’
The new foods vertical forms the smallest investment total in the food tech category of Japan’s investment roadmap. The largest is indoor farming, which has been allocated ¥4.6 ($28.4B).
Here, the government has outlined a policy to expand the range of commercially cultivated crops beyond just leafy vegetables and roll out a system that marries crops, production equipment, cultivation data, and operational know-how in response to market demand.
Another pillar relates to food machinery, which is set to receive ¥1.2T ($7.4B) to help Japan expand its overseas presence via measures that support compliance with international regulations, the establishment of global standards led by Japan, and the acquisition of certifications needed for export. Freshness preservation is viewed as a catalyst technology for expanding exports of food and fresh produce, with a target of ¥3T in sales by 2040.
The fourth food tech sector earmarked for funding is land-based aquaculture. The government has allocated ¥2.9T ($17.9B) for the deployment of modular systems, as well as the development of feed via algal fermentation and genome-related technologies.
”When it comes to investment targets, we believe it is crucial to invest strategically. This requires a multifaceted evaluation that includes not only technological capabilities, but also management strength, whether or not they have an international focus, and their personal networks,” said Suzuki.
”We will continue to consider how to select which companies to support and which technologies to strongly promote,” he added.
