Analysis of Food Security in Japan

Japan is an island country located in the east of Asia with a population of 126.8 million people and is the 8th most populated nation in the world. In 2018, the Global Food Security Index ranked Japan as the 18th most food secure country out of 113 others, and the 4th most food secure in all of Asia and the Pacific. Japan is a temperate deciduous forest biome and gets 30-60 inches of precipitation a year. Because of the wet and humid conditions, Japan can grow lots of rice, making it a main part of their diet and their staple food. The total area of Japan is 377,835 sq km, and with only 12% of Japan’s land is suitable for farming, the country can’t produce enough food to feed the population, therefore they rely mostly on importing food from other countries. According to The Japan Times, Japan’s self sufficiency rate of producing food was at 73% in 1965, however in 2019 is at only 39%. Because Japan has the 2nd most developed economy in the world, it can afford to import majority of its food from other countries as people’s lifestyles and dietary habits have changed. There is more demand for western foods than traditional foods like fish and rice.

Data was collected from The Global Security Index which presented a graph and information about the food security in Japan. This resource was chosen as it was created by The Economist which is a very reliable source and had information on where Japan ranked for different aspects of food security out of 113 other countries. The World Bank’s data also provided a graph showing the percentage of arable land Japan has, this resource has data on all other countries as well. I chose this source as it is a reliable organisation that aims to end poverty in all countries.

There are many factors that influence the food security of Japan. One natural factor is the amount of natural disasters Japan faces. Because Japan is located along the ‘The Ring of Fire’, it is prone to earthquakes which can be a trigger for tsunamis, landslides and volcanic activity. Although some freshwater flooding can be helpful to the growth of rice, flooding caused by seawater tsunamis contain too high of a salt content for plants to grow in, and therefore kill the rice crops and affecting the amount of food produced. Flooding also destroys crops as it carries pollution and littering into the fields where harmful chemicals get absorbed by the soil and can grow into the plant, landslides can also destroy the crops by bringing mud, covering the crops and soil, degrading the land so it is not used for plant growth. Earthquakes, flooding and landslides are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most common natural disasters in japan after storms. Majority of Japan’s agricultural land is forests where there is not much pasture or land suitable for producing food. The 2nd most common type of agriculture in Japan, is found in mostly the south where rice, some wheat and double crops are grown, rice is grown well in this area as it gets 60 to above 80 inches of precipitation per year, the most out of the whole country.The least common type of agriculture is the growth of wheat, barley and oats, which is found in the north of Japan which receives the least amount of precipitation, only getting less than 40-60 inches to rain per year. In total Japan gets 1,530 millimetres of precipitation per year and the annual average humidity is 64%, with the high humidity and rainfall, rice growth flourishes and because Japan can produce a large amount of it, rice is therefore a common part of the population’s every day meal.

There are also many human factors which influence the food security of Japan. One is that, since 1961-2011 what the population consumes has changed with more demand for western foods than traditional Japanese foods. The amount of sugar and fats the country consumes grows by 12%, starting at 15% in 1961, then grows to 27% in 2011. As the number of sugars consumed is gaining, the amount of grain consumed by Japan decreases by 21%, it starts at 60%, being more than half of their diet in 1961, then decreases to 39% in 2011. This tells us that over time, the amount the amount of sugar consumed has increased as the number of grains and rice, their staple food, decreases. Because the demand for sugar and western foods have gone up by so much, Japan is forced to import 61% of what the population eats as it is unable to produce westerns foods. Fast foods are also in higher demand in Japan taking places in the streets which would previously be filled with traditional Japanese foods. Another human factor that is influencing the food security of Japan is that the population is rapidly decreasing. In 2018, Japan had a population decline of over 444,000 people. Although this population decrease is bad for the social and economy of Japan, it helps Japan become more food secure as there are less people to feed. From 1995 to 2015, all but 8 states in Japan had a population decline showing an overall decrease in Japan’s population.

Japan is currently ranked as the 18th most food secure country according to the Global Security Index and so already is quite food secure. Japan could improve on the food security by implementing salt-tolerant rice, according to Futurism, agricultural scientist Yuan Longping in China, has recently developed a new high-yield strain of rice that can grow in saltwater. By implementing this in Japan it can help the growth of rice so that it can withstand natural disasters like tsunamis and means it can grow in areas affected by saltwater. Because Japan has good conditions for rice growth, the overproduction of rice can be an issue for Japan as the demand for traditional foods has declined, this led the Japanese government in 1987 to introduce a policy which decreases the amount of rice produced. With this land previously used for rice farming, Japanese farmers could grow vegetable crops which are in higher demand, this could reduce the amount of food imported to the country therefore reducing the money spent on trade. Individuals of Japan should try to reduce their impact on climate change, this is affecting their food security as climate change can lead to extreme weathers, such as droughts, which can damage the crops and inhibit plant growth.

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