- In terms of foodstuff, Japan, Switzerland and Germany's self sufficency rates are as follows;
- Japan 37%
- Switzerland
- Germany 90%
It is obvious that Japan is heavily dependant on other countries for food products. Taking "tempura-udon" as an example, the prawns come from Indonesia, the noodles and flour used to coat of the tempura are from U.S.A., tangle for stock is from Taiwan, and the beans for soysauce are from U.S.A. Only Welsh onions and water are Japanese, however even the Welsh onions are sometimes brought in from Korea.
- In 1994, Japan exported agricultural and marine products to Hong Kong, U.S.A., Taiwn, Korea, and Thailand, etc. Exports totalled U.S. $2,842,000,000, and mainly consisted of pearls, cigarettes, confectionery, tunas, bonitos and ecallops.
- The total amount of agricultural and marine product imported in 1994 was U.S. $54,915,000,000.
- Agricultural products U.S. $38,175,000,000
- Marine products U.S. $16,740,000,000
Currently, the amount of marine products imported in 1994 was about 4 times the amount in 1984. This is due to the decrease of the quantity of catching fishes in Japan and the increased share of imports. Fishing have been tightened in recent years.
- Importing countries and shares of foodstuff in 1994 were as follows;
- U.S.A. 27.8%
- China10.4%
- Australia 6.7%
- Taiwan 6.3%
- Thailand 6.1%
- Canada 5.2%
- Korea 3.6%
- Indonesia 2.9%
- France 2.3%
- Russia 2.2%
- Import of main agricultural products; (The total amount in phisical year of 1994: US $38,175 million)
- Grain, Grain powder US $6,291mil.
- Fruits, Vegetables US $5,889 mil.
- Sugar US $633 mil.
- Coffe, Cocoa, Tea US $1,507 mil.
- Other foods & beverages US $3,371 mil.
- Vegetable oils US $2,893 mil.Tabacco US $2,593 mil.
- Others US $2,659 mil.
- Import of liverstock products; (The total amount in physical year of 1994: US $10,411 million)
- Live Fishes US $452 mil.
- Raw/Cooled/Frozen fishes US $2,969 mil.
- Salted products US $699 mil.
- Canned/bottled products US $1,955 mil.
- Others US $655 mil.
- Trend of recent imported foodstuffs:
- 99.7% of total imported rice is from China, Thailand, U.S.A. and Australia.
- Consumption of marine products is decreasing. Yhey are mainly imported from U.S.A., China, Thailand and the main items are shrimp, bonito, tuna, salmon, trout, crab and eel.
- In case of meats, import from following countries are increasing.
- Beef: Australia, U.S.A.
- Pork: Taiwan, U.S.A., Denmark
- Chicken: China, U.S.A., Thailand
- Imported quantity of ice cream in 1994 increased by 40% compared with the preceding year, and the main sources were U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand.
- Domestic production of butter was greately decreased in 1994, while imports increased, with 78.5% of the total imports from Australia and Belgium. As for cheese, 69.4% of the total imports were from Australia, New Zealand and Denmark.
- For frozen vegetables, 97.2% of total imports were from China (39.2%), U.S.A., New Zealand, Thailand and Mexico in 1994.
- Imported beer in 1994 was mainly from U.S.A. (65.6%), Belgium (7.6%) and Canada(7.4%).
- Import of mineral water in 1994 increased by 51.7% compared with the last year and were mainly from France(63.6%), Belgium(15.9%), U.S.A.(9%).
- Pet foods are imported from Thailand, U.S.A., and Australia.
- Imports from China and South-East Asian countries are as follows;
- From China: rice, processed eel, chicken and corn
- From Thailand: shrimp/prawn, rice chicken and crude suger
- From Indonesia: shrimp/prawn, tuna and coffee beans
- From Malaysia: palm oil
- From Korea: tuna, ark shell, seaweed, eggs of cod and HIJIKI (a kind of edible seaweeds)
- From the Philippines: banana, shrimp/prawn, pineapple, tuna and palm oil
- The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to increase imports according to the following measures:
- reduction of government intervention
- acceptance of foreign inspection data
- adjustment to international standards
- simplification and speeding up of approval procedure
- simplification and speeding up of import procedure (medical inspection of animals & plants), etc.
* All figures are from "Agro-trade Hand book 1995" published by JETRO.
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