Japan Focus
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This edition covers Thailand’s rice export push amid Japan’s crisis, government plans to manage food price hikes, Kirin’s shift toward low- and no-alcohol beverages, and more.
Japan rice crisis: Thailand spots exports opportunity on back of bumper production
Thai trade officials are hoping to cash in on Japan’s rice supply challenges and subsequent price hikes that have hit consumers hard.
Thailand already exports approximately 300,000 tonnes of rice to Japan each year, accounting for around 43% of its import share.
However, with ongoing concerns around the long-term viability and efficiency of the Japanese rice sector, Thai officials see considerable scope for this to increase.
Pricing pains: Japan government to set system for food price hikes
Japan, like many other markets worldwide, has felt the impacts of rising production and logistic costs in recent years, further compounded by inflationary pressures and poor currency exchange rates.
The government has found that these more of these rises in costs will be passed on to consumers this year, so has announced that a mechanism to control these hikes will be introduced.
Kirin Brewery to boost focus on low and non-alcoholic beverages in 2025
Kirin Brewery is Kirin Holding’s brewery arm and is best known for popular beers under its eponymous branding such as Kirin Lager in the standard beer sector, and Kirin Tanrei happoshu, in the low-malt beer segment.
The brewery has announced a renewed focus on developing more low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages within its portfolio, after the traditional beer sector hit a 17-year high in 2024.
Japan looks to tighten mineral water safety standards with focus on ‘forever chemicals’
The Japanese government is setting permitted levels of so-called ‘forever chemicals’ in mineral water, with standards set to mirror those of tap water.
‘Forever chemicals’ refer to chemicals from the perfluorinated chemicals group (PFCs) that were christened as such due to incredibly high stability and difficulty of breaking these down in the environment.
Japan springboards 2025 international food trade initiatives with Australia agreement, GI successes
Japan has made a roaring start to its plans for international food trade in 2025 with the announcement of a new collaboration with Australia as well as six new successful Geographical Indications (GI) registrations.
The East Asian nation has long been on the quest to boost its international trade and particularly food export routes, having previously set a JPY5tn goal to hit by 2030, but hit various snags along the way in 2024 including the China ban on its seafood linked to its Fukushima wastewater release project.
