Cellular Ag Series: Regulatory uncertainty still a challenge for Japan’s cultivated meat industry

With the new year underway, we continue our snapshot series on Japan’s cultivated meat industry. In this installment, Meros analyst Sachika Onaka focuses on the overseas and Japanese regulatory landscape and reflect on key regulatory developments in 2024.

Overseas regulatory landscape

Singapore is the world leader in terms of implementing cultivated meat regulation. In 2020, it became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat when it approved Eat Just’s GOOD Meat, a cultivated chicken product. In 2023, the US followed suit by approving the sale of cell-cultivated chicken products from GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods, and in January 2024, Israel approved the sale of Aleph Farm’s cultivated beef.

In a first for the EU, the Netherlands established a code of practice in 2023 to allow for the tasting of cultivated meat, which had previously been illegal, even for researchers. Under the code, approved companies can conduct tasting events for up to 30 people in controlled and safe conditions.

Global legislative momentum continued in 2024, with the Korean government announcing the creation of a regulation-free zone to promote the R&D, production, and commercialization of cultivated meat in May. Similarly, in October, the UK government announced its intention to create a cultivated meat regulatory sandbox – an experimental space where companies can test their products under relaxed rules.

On the other hand, we have seen regulation move in the opposite direction in some places, with some states in the US and Italy taking steps to ban cultivated meat. In 2024, Florida and Alabama in the US signed into law legislation banning the manufacture, sale or distribution of cultivated meat. This reflects the mixed responses and concerns to cellular agriculture technology.

Japanese regulation on cellular agriculture – a regulatory grey zone

Currently, there is no explicit regulatory reference that either restricts or legalizes the sale of cultivated meat and seafood in Japan. This regulatory uncertainty is arguably the biggest hurdle for both domestic and foreign startups and companies wanting to continue R&D, conduct consumer tests, and develop manufacturing plants in Japan. As it is not illegal to conduct tastings, research labs and industry associations have organized private and restricted tastings. However, within the Japanese industry, there is a tacit understanding not to conduct public tastings or sell products until there is legal clarity. If public tastings of cultivated meat are conducted before regulatory approval, there is concern that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) could invoke the Food Sanitation Act Article 7, effectively banning cultivated meat and seafood, creating an uphill battle for the industry.

The Consumers Affairs Agency (CAA), the Food Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office, and the MHLW are the key agencies responsible for developing the safety regulations and approval process of cultivated meat in Japan. They continue to monitor legislative developments abroad while continuing discussions around the formation of an approval process. For example, the Food Safety Standards Council of the CAA, which oversees the creation of food safety standard for cultivated met, is discussing and examining safety considerations at each stage of the production, including cells, inputs, processing and contamination risks. The council most recently met in November 2024 with the key takeaways from this meeting can be found on the CAA website or here in Japanese.

Although discussions on safety guidelines for manufacturing cultivated meat have begun, it remains unclear when Japan will finalize the approval framework and relevant legislation. Nevertheless, there have been developments. On October 21st, 2024, the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA) – the industry association that advocates for and advises the Japanese government on regulations related to cellular agriculture – submitted proposals to both the CAA and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). The proposal contained two key recommendations: the establishment of a ‘consultation service’ and the clarification of the legal procedures required for market entry.

One factor often attributed to the slow progress in Japan’s cultivated meat approval process is the deadlock between the lack of a finished product available for testing by agencies and the companies’ preference for a clear regulatory framework before investing further into product development. JACA’s proposed consultation service would be established by the relevant agencies as an information hub and helpdesk to assist companies in identifying potential regulatory or safety issues as they develop products. It would also allow the government to collect manufacturing and production data from companies, which could help facilitate the formation of an approval process. JACA hopes that this exchange of information will allow both sides to move forward without stalling technological innovation.  

Other challenges & recent developments

Legal clarity is the first of many challenges facing the cultivated meat industry. Other key issues include scaling production, lowering costs to reach price parity and increasing consumer awareness to create demand for cell-cultured products.

In Japan, achieving price parity will be critical to grow consumer demand, as the majority of consumers base their food purchasing decisions on safety and cost. This lack of consumer demand and unclear regulatory time frame has resulted in many domestic players focusing on establishing a global presence before turning their attention back to the Japanese market.

Having said this, some other developments in the latter half of 2024 could accelerate the change within the domestic industry. On October 1, 2024, the Good Food Institute (GFI) established a Japan office. GFI is a non-profit think tank that works to accelerate alternative protein innovation, with a focus on plant-based meat, cultivated meat and fermentation technology.

October seemed to be a key month for cultivated meat and seafood, with mainstream media coverage increasing. On October 25th, Japan’s leading business newspaper, the Nikkei published an article comparing Japan’s lack of regulation to other countries and highlighted concerns among the Japanese industry of the lag in progress. The following day Japan’s public broadcaster NHK ran a feature focused on cultivated seafood researchers and startups. With the establishment of GFI Japan and the ongoing efforts of domestic industry associations, we expect increasing coverage of the technological advances in the field.

Another factor in the mix is the upcoming Osaka Kansai World EXPO, running from April 13th to October 13th, 2025. The “Consortium for Future Innovation by Cultured Meat,” consisting of five corporations and Osaka University, is a participant in the Osaka Healthcare Pavillion. The consortium plans to display its 3D printing technology of cultivated wagyu at the pavilion.

Initially, there was some hope among the industry that legislation would be created allowing for tasting events to take place at the Expo. However, the reality is that public tastings are still far away. Regardless, displaying the 3D-printed cultivated wagyu meat will generate increased media coverage and consumer interest, creating a golden opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of cellular agriculture technology.

As the cultivated meat industry evolves, Team Meros will continue to monitor these developments in 2025. Please stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll focus on cultivated seafood and its potential in Japan!

For further insights on cultivated meat, foodtech and biotech for food and agriculture, please reach out to inquiries@merosconsulting.com

Cellular Ag Series: Collaboration is the key among the players in Japan’s cultivated meat industry

Discussions have been growing in recent years on cellular agriculture’s potential role in improving food security as well as addressing consumer concerns, such as animal welfare and sustainability. In the last two years, Meros has been digging deeply into topics including novel and alternative protein sources. We continue to monitor developments in this industry and our researcher Sachika Onaka has used this to create a snapshot series of Japan’s cultivated meat industry in 2024. To start, in this first installment, we’ll explore Japan’s major domestic players!

So, what is cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat, including seafood, is ‘real’ meat created by cultivating animal cells in a bioreactor (in vitro). Cell culture mediums, growth factors and other proteins are added to provide the necessary nutrients for the development of the cells. Cultivated meat is also referred to as cell-cultured meat, and various products, from chicken, beef, and pork to foie gras, eel, and tuna, are being developed by startups, universities, and major food manufacturers around the world.

The cultivated meat industry in Japan

Japan’s cultivated meat and seafood market has attracted significant interest from international governments as well as startups, including France’s Gourmey, Singapore’s Umami Bioworks and Isreal’s Forsea Foods, all of which are interested in expanding into Japan. While globally there was a decrease in investment into the cultivated meat industry in 2024, Japan does not yet seem to be slowing down.

Domestically, research and development are prolific, but unlike in overseas markets where there has been more focus on growing ground meat products such as burgers and meatballs, in Japan, R&D is slightly skewed towards creating structured cultivated meat (i.e. steaks). This is likely due to the fact that early corporate movers, both in terms of joint R&D initiatives and investment into cultivated meat, are companies from the traditional meat industry, such as Nippon Ham and Itoham Yonekyu, both major meat processing and food manufacturing companies. Furthermore, many cultivated meat researchers have established roots in regenerative medicine and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research, so Japan’s initial focus on cultivated meat instead of seafood was a logical conclusion.

This is not to say that there is no R&D being conducted on cultivated seafood; in fact, there is significant research and media attention on seafood is increasing. We will cover cultivated seafood in a later post in this series.

The Japanese cultivated meat players and their characteristics

Cultivated meat startups, companies, universities and industry associations have all been key in the development of the Japanese cultivated meat industry.

The heavyweight that has propelled the Japanese cultivated meat market forward is IntegriCulture, a cellular agriculture biotech startup. IntegriCulture focuses on not only producing products that use cultured cells but also working towards forming a cellular agriculture network and value chain.

Other startups and subsidiary companies focusing on cultivated meat include NU Protein, Diverse Farm, Organoid Farm and Hyperion FoodTech. These companies are notable in that they are diverse in their operations and are not solely pursuing the creation of a final cultivated meat product. Some produce inputs such as culture mediums and serums, while others produce cultured cells for cosmetic products.

Universities are key in the technological advances of the industry, and two notable examples of cultivated meat research are the Takeuchi lab at the University of Tokyo and the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University. These two research labs focus on structured cultivated meat and have partnered with corporations to form public-private partnerships. The University of Tokyo and Nissin Corporation, a major Japanese food manufacturing company, most famous for their instant noodles, are working towards their goal of developing a 100 gm cultivated steak.

Osaka University is working with several major corporations and has formed the Future Creation Consortium for Cultivated Meat with them to develop 3D-printing technology to create cultivated wagyu steak.

One trend we see in Japan, besides the pioneering efforts from meat processing and food manufacturing corporations, is that large, established companies with no background in the food market have also ventured into cultivated meat R&D. These corporations are not only investing in startups and conducting in-house research and development, but also forming partnerships with each other. An example is the partnership between ZACROS (a film manufacturer), Toppan (a printing company) and Shimadzu (a high-tech manufacturing company), which aims to develop, commercialize and facilitate consumer acceptance of cultivated wagyu steak.

The three-way partnership was awarded approximately 1 billion yen in funding as part of the Japanese government’s Bio Manufacturing Revolution Promotion Project Research and Development Plan. This partnership will also collaborate with key universities conducting cultivated meat research, including Osaka University, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture, as well as the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA)

JACA is an industry association focused on policy making and advocacy for cellular agriculture technology. JACA communicates with Japanese government ministries and provides information on regulatory developments in both Japanese and English. Other industry organizations such as the Cellular Agriculture Institute of the Commons (CAIC) and the Japan Bioindustry Association (JBA) focus on facilitating collaboration and information sharing among the industry, along with consumer education and awareness building of cultivated meat.

As we can see, collaboration among and between a wide array of stakeholders is gaining traction in Japan. Stay tuned for the next installment in this series, where we’ll focus on cultivated seafood and its potential in Japan!  For further insights on cultivated meat, food tech and biotech for food and agriculture, please reach out to inquiries@merosconsulting.com

What are the hot topics in Japanese foodtech closing out 2023?

As 2023 draws to an end, three major foodtech topics Meros followed this year: the growing interest in circular economy, sustainability and Japan’s emerging cultivated meat sector, were all still front and center at the annual Foodtech Japan, Drink Japan and the Smart Restaurant EXPO at Tokyo Big Sight this month. Not only could we glean insights into where the Japanese market is focusing now, but we could also get a sense of what issues may be the hot food industry topics of 2024.

Circular economy and food loss

Initiatives and technologies utilizing ‘non-standard’ or discarded fresh produce are increasing. Projects are being seen everywhere, from large companies to start-ups. Meros has been working closely on food loss projects in the Japanese fresh food industry this year and so of particular interest to us was Astra Food Plan.

Astra Food Plan is a Japanese Series A start-up that uses superheated steam technology to dry food waste rapidly into powder. Astra Food Plan offers a range of examples, including lemons, onions, eggshells, and green tea leaves. Upon smelling the lemon vials, we were pleasantly surprised to discover a very strong smell of lemons, even in this powdered form, suggesting clear commercial applications.

A noticeable difference between Astra Food Plan’s idea and other circular economy-based products focusing on compost was that this is one of the dew start-ups focusing on upcycling and re-commercialization. Each dry food waste powder has tailored individual usages, taking into consideration their characteristics: the lemons for baking, the eggshells for high-end beauty products and green tea to mix with plastic, potentially to create rubbish bags that prevent odor. This diversity of potential commercial applications makes Astra Food Plan one we will continue to watch.

DX & the Japanese Labor Crisis

The reoccurring theme across all the events at the EXPO was DX (digital transformation), with many companies displaying AI-based products aimed at alleviating the strain placed on the food and beverage industry from Japan’s growing labor shortage.

There were certainly samples of the now-familiar delivery robots found in many Japanese restaurant chains – new prototypes of these ever cuter delivery robots were delivering boxed lunches to customers in the food court area of the event. However the more interesting innovation targeted automation for food manufacturing and central kitchens. For example, machines that automate the task of stir-frying were on display and may soon be found in industrial kitchens in Japan. Add the ingredients into this machine and it will then stir-fry the dish with no human help.

Sustainability: Including human rights and labor issues

Meros attended a number of seminars and a top topic was sustainability. For example, Ms Shihumi Takamori from Asahi Holdings Japan, producer of Japan’s #1 beer, presented on their domestic sustainability initiatives and policies and also discussed some of their challenges in this space. Seeing such major Japanese food companies taking center stage to speak bluntly about sustainability issues would have been rare just two years ago. But there is a growing movement among the major Japanese manufacturers to take global sustainability issues more seriously.  

A few takeaways from this seminar were:

  • The five pillars of Asahi’s sustainability global policy are environment, communities, responsible drinking, health and human rights.
  • Asahi has initiatives covering each sustainability pillar at each stage of their supply chain (sourcing, distribution, manufacturing and retail). For example, one of the issues of concern under human rights is the working conditions of truck drivers in their distribution system. An example initiative to address this is collaboration between Asahi, Kirin (Japan’s other giant brewery), and Japan Rail (JR) train services for distributing their beers. This kind of collaboration between companies (even rivals!) as well as effective use of the Japanese train system is likely to be of increasing importance, as the industry anticipates the shortage of truck drivers in Japan to become a ‘very hot’ topic in 2024.
  • However, Asahi Holdings feels there is still big differences between Asahi Japan and their international companies in terms of sustainability progress. Asahi has purchased numerous major beer brands in Europe, Australia and elsewhere in recent years and Takamori admitted that differences in sustainability policies and the progress towards sustainability goals within the Japan parent company and their international business is something they continue to tackle.

Cultivated meat in Japan

This has been a major area of interest to Meros this year, as we worked on several market assessments for international clients interested in Japan’s cultivated meat industry and also mentored the award-winning cultivated seafood start-up Forsea, as they explore Asian markets.

We were particularly interested in a seminar featuring the CEOs of two of the four main Japanese cultivated meat startups: Diverse Farm and Organoid Farm.

The key takeaways from Mr Jiro Ono, CEO of Diverse Farm and Ms Taeko Yamaki, CEO of Organoid Farm, included:

  • Cultivated meat is not yet commercially available in Japan but to create solid legislation for the manufacture and sale of cultivated meat, safety requirements, providing a sense of security (to consumers and stakeholders), licensing and labeling are the critical areas that must be agreed on.
  • There is still debate about the different factors and perspectives to consider when choosing which animal cell to cultivate. They cited research that suggests cultivated chicken meat actually has a carbon footprint 4% higher than conventional chicken, compared to the significant decrease in the carbon foodprint of cultivated beef (down by 92%) and pork (down by 52%). However when considering animal welfare, cultivated chicken has arguably the biggest improvement compared to conventional chicken.
  • The Japanese industry has a goal of harvesting over 1 ton of cultivated meat, but still faces significant challenges in scaling up.

Looking ahead

In 2024 Meros will continue to track the topics of circular economy, sustainability and the emerging cultivated meat industry in Japan.

We also expect to keep an eye out on the issue of shortage of truck drivers and other labor issues in the supply chain as well as follow the growing discussions on biodiversity as a critical aspect of sustainability initiatives. Meros, a co-founder of the Japan Impact Investing Network (J-IIN) will be holding a series of webinars on natural capital, including biodiversity in 2024 and we invite you to follow our page and the J-IIN page on LinkedIn for updates.