Food Issues in Japan
Japan has a significant population on a small territory. Its soils are not fertile, and the percent of land available for agriculture is relatively low. It leads to a situation when the amount of food necessary for living is not enough. Domestic food production satisfies only one-third of it. The required amount is calculated based on the number of calories needed for all Japanese populations in total. In addition, Japan has no close cooperation about food imports with neighboring Asian countries, such as China.
Thus, the food importation to the country is not adjusted in the best way. Problems, security and self-sufficiency Japan is dependent on other countries when it comes to the food supply. As mentioned, it cannot provide itself with food in the necessary amounts and should import it. When prices on food rise or food supply shorten, the country might undergo calorie insufficiency. Food is essential for the population’s life, and if it is not enough food, standards of living fall drastically, even despite Japan being a developed country. In addition to that, cataclysms are frequent in Japan. It undergoes tsunamis and earthquakes, which destroy its infrastructure regularly. To cope with the hardships of food supply, Japan needs a flexible and robust regulation in the food and agricultural fields.
The Food, Agriculture, and Rural Areas Basic Act of 1999
The Food, Agriculture, and Rural Areas Basic Act was enacted to maintain food security in Japan. It provides a wide range of measures to maintain a food supply: both domestic production and import. It explores developing domestic food production, for example, using technological advances for increasing productivity. Another aim is waste minimizing during production, importation, and storage. In emergency cases, there are regulations of price to ensure that everyone will be able to buy food. The total amount of calories of available food is calculated. If this amount is less than the sum of daily intakes of calories for all people, then emergency measures are provided. Basic Plans, established five years ahead, are based on this sum. They consists of measures, procedures and other implementations to ensure that the population will receive the necessary level of calories
Implementation of the Act
The Act promotes cooperation in fields of food production and trading at national and international levels. It establishes connections with farmers’ organizations and businesses in Japan, which stimulates development and regulates them. In addition to cooperation in food trade with other countries, it stimulates promoting agriculture industry in developing countries of Africa. It also includes implementing the laws, procedures, and other measures for all actions connected with food: trading, production, distribution, storage. According to it, the government regulates businesses to ensure that they will evenly distribute the food at reasonable prices. Those measures include the quarantine control of imported food to prevents epidemics, too. After the series of catastrophic events, such as Tsunamis and the tragic explosion in the Fukushima atomic reactor, the chapter of “Localized and short-term insecurity” has been added for such events.
Importance of the Act
The main feature of the Act, which makes it extremely important for Japan, is the framework of rules, procedures, measures, and laws that make the country’s food supply more reliable. Regulation of business and agricultural organizations helps to ensure that food will be accessible at fair prices. Those measures also stimulate the development of the agriculture industry: taking the unfertile Japanese lands, only with the help of technology it is possible to grow enough food there. Cooperation with other countries eases food import and, consequently, public access to food. Establishing agricultural production in developed African countries will help to obtain cheap eats in the future. Emergency measures established in the Act make the losses of food storage minimal. In Japan, where cataclysms are usual, such actions are essential to provide a good quality of life.
Challenges and Conclusion
Despite the food supply in Japan is usually normal and people do not suffer from starvation, Japanese people understand the instability of the situation with food (Akihiko, 2017). The country has a necessity in strong regulation of food supply and distribution; still, it should be flexible to ensure easy access to the food and its even distribution. Government organizations analyze risks connected with food supply each year, and the results of that analysis are public. Technologies are widely used to improve agriculture: from 1945, the yields of crops in Japan rises each year (Akihiko, 2017). However, one of the problems is the decreasing population of Japanese farmers: food production decreases with them as well. In general, The Food, Agriculture, and Rural Areas Basic Act is very helpful for the country: it ensures that the food supply is stable and no people are starving.
Reference
Akihiko, H. (2017, August). Formation of Japan’s food security policy: Relations with food situation and evolution of agricultural policies. Norinchukin Research Institute Co., Ltd.