The "Current Situation of Organic Agriculture" updated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in June 2025 comprehensively covers the current state of organic agriculture in Japan and worldwide, market trends, policy support, challenges, and future prospects.
Key Points
Definition and Current Status of Organic Agriculture
- Japan's Organic Agriculture Promotion Act defines it as "basically not using chemically synthesized fertilizers and pesticides, and not utilizing genetic modification technology"
- Organic agriculture area in Japan for FY2023: approximately 30,000ha (0.7% of cultivated land area)
- Global organic agriculture area in 2022: approximately 96.4 million ha (approximately 2% of total cultivated land area)
- Organic JAS certified agricultural land in Japan for FY2023: approximately 15,000ha
Organic Food Market Size and Trends
- Global organic food sales in 2023: approximately 136.4 billion euros (approximately 20.7 trillion yen)
- Japan's organic food market size in 2022: approximately 224 billion yen (increased from 130 billion yen in 2009)
- Consumers using organic food once a week or more: 32.6% (2022, increased from 17.5% in 2017)
- Global average per capita organic food consumption: 2,346 yen, Japan: 1,794 yen
Goals in the Green Food System Strategy
- Expand the proportion of organic agriculture area to cultivated land to 25% (1 million ha) by 2050
- Expand organic agriculture area to 63,000ha and organic farmers to 36,000 by 2030
- Establish next-generation organic agriculture technology that most farmers can adopt for major crops by 2040
- Improve domestic share of organic food from 60% in 2017 to 84% by 2030
Policy Support and Implementation Examples
- Organic village initiative municipalities exceed 100 (FY2024)
- Implementation of support projects for organic agriculture production area development and transition support to green cultivation systems
- Support for organic agriculture through direct payments for environmentally friendly agriculture (12,000 yen per 10a, etc.)
- Expansion of organic agricultural product use in school meals (increased municipalities using them in FY2023 survey)
Producer Challenges and Response
- Main challenges for organic agriculture producers: labor-intensive, difficult pest control, low yields
- Technology development: promoting next-generation organic agriculture technology using smart technology
- Training of organic agriculture instructors in prefectures (deployed in all 47 prefectures in FY2024)
- Supporting creation and horizontal deployment of organic cultivation manuals adapted to local conditions
The article shows that organic agriculture plays an important role in environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture realization, steadily expanding through policy support.