Photo/Illutration Discarded rice balls are sent to Japan Food Ecology Center Inc. in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on June 3. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

As Japan continues to struggle with rice shortages and rising prices, it wastes up to 4 tons of the grain every day—and that’s just in and around one prefecture.

The government, aware of the situation, is urging retailers around the nation to take measures to reduce the waste and make better use of excess rice products.

Food recycling company Japan Food Ecology Center Inc., located in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, collects surplus food from about 200 businesses, including supermarkets and food factories that supply convenience stores, in the prefecture and the Tama area of western Tokyo.

The company receives about 40 tons of waste every day, mainly carbohydrates, including 3 to 4 tons of rice.

Some cooked rice is thrown away although it is still edible, the company said. All of it becomes “food loss.”

According to the company president, Koichi Takahashi, food factories cook more rice than necessary to avoid running out of stock if big orders come in.

The surplus cooked rice is often not placed on store shelves.

The excess food that can’t be sold is delivered to Japan Food Ecology Center, which places it in special containers. The company compiles data about the waste from each business.

The contents of the containers are then dumped into larger iron containers, where metal fragments and other foreign objects are removed on a conveyer belt.

The remaining waste is crushed, sterilized and fermented, turned into liquid fermented feed, and transported to pig farms.

Pigs raised on this feed are sold as brand pork with soft meat.

However, the amount of food collected and processed by Japan Food Ecology Center is only a small portion of the total amount in Japan. Most of the thrown-out food is incinerated by local municipalities at taxpayers’ expense.

“If you think you can buy anything cheaply anytime and anywhere, we will end up wasting food,” Takahashi said. “I want consumers to view this as their own problem and reduce waste as much as possible as individuals. It is important to appreciate food and learn how hard it is to produce it.”

A RICE BALL A DAY

According to the farm and environment ministries, Japan’s food waste totaled an estimated 4.72 million tons in fiscal 2022.

This amounts to about 103 grams daily per person, equivalent to one rice ball, which typically weighs about 110 grams.

The farm ministry on June 6 sent a notice to five organizations representing supermarkets and convenience stores.

“In response to soaring rice prices, the government is promoting sales of rice reserves through direct contracts with retailers,” the notice said. “Despite this situation, rice balls, bento meals and other cooked rice products have been wasted. This is socially unacceptable.”

The notice called for “minimizing food waste, including rice products, through supply chains” and placing “appropriate orders.”

Food products that are within the best-before dates that cannot be put on shelves at retail stores should be donated to food banks, the notice said.

It also called for retailers to widely publicize their food waste reduction efforts to improve consumer awareness.

Rumi Ide, a journalist with expertise in food waste issues, said; “I think it is very contradictory that at a time when there is a rice shortage, people keep wasting rice, a precious and limited resource.

“Why is everyone focused on increasing rice production but not reducing waste?”

Regarding the notice from the farm ministry, she said; “I want businesses to recognize that food is a finite resource and commit to reducing food waste. They should make serious efforts, not just pretend to do so.”

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