Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Japan, a steep, densely packed island that imports more than half its food, faces unique food security challenges. Ongoing population decline and a shift towards white collar jobs means that the average number of farmers is on course for a decline of 50% by 2030, compared with 2005 figures. To add to this, roughly 40% of Japan’s limited farmland is on hilly terrain, and mostly divided into small family-owned farms. To be more self-sufficient, the Japanese government began to fund ‘smart agriculture’ projects in 2014 to promote robotics and information technology that boost productivity. Under this initiative, Japan is developing everything from automated farm machinery, efficient plant breeding, guidelines for food consumption and recycling technologies to export tracking and a large-scale agricultural data sharing platform.
Using robotics, sensors, big-data simulations, microbes and genomics, Japan is tweaking food supply at every level to boost food security, sustainability and markets.
Blockchain that cuts out fakes, and sensors that ensure freshness will give new confidence to the producers and consumers of Japan’s sought-after food exports.
By using agricultural waste and co-producing other bio-based chemicals, Japan is reducing the cost of glucose, one of the global bioeconomy’s greatest hopes.