Introduction

"Seafood—with rice, the most ‘Japanese food’ of foods—is imbued," wrote anthropologist Theodore C. Bestor, "with all the symbolism of tradition and identity that the Japanese so often lavish on their cultural heritage.” Bestor, of course, was writing on the complexities of a food culture which includes aspirations and ideals as well as the actual intake, but we thought it would be interesting to explore Japan’s food supply nonetheless.

How important is seafood and rice to Japan? We investigated the question by using The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) data on Japan. In particular, we examined Japan’s annual food balance sheets from 1961-2002 (click here to access data.)

Food Balance Sheet

The table below outlines Japan’s food balance sheet for 2002, in which we present the key rice and seafood categories.

If we look at the rice category on the table, Japan produced 7.41 million tons of rice in 2002. Japan imported 616 thousand tons, and exported 22 thousand tons. Over all, Japan’s domestic supply of rice was 7.99 million tons.

This supply of rice was used in a number of ways: 95 thousand tons were used to feed animals, 43 thousand tons were used for seed, which 332 thousand tons were processed into non food products, 150 thousand tons were wasted, but the grand majority, 7.36 million tons, were used for food.

If we take this total food figure and divide by the total population (127.5 million) we can arrive at an estimate of how much supply is available to each member of the population. In the case of rice, this is equivalent to 57.7 kg per year per person. If we translate that to nutritional values on a daily basis, this is 618 calories per day from rice, and provides 11g or protein, and 1.4 g of fat per day. This is not the same as the actual amount consumed. Information on food consumption is collected in surveys of household consumption or expenditure. However, these data are not directly comparable, due to the difference in definition and in error calculations (http://www.eldis.org/static/DOC6419.htm).