Japan Farm Exports: Updated Feb.9, 2026.

Japan's annual farm exports rise to new record 1.7 trillion yen

Article source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260203/p2g/00m/0bu/030000c

Ideas

The record of Japanese agricultural exports is not just about the popularity of Japanese food but about the practicality that the Japanese domestic market is decreasing each year and Japanese agricultural suppliers need to continue to find new markets and the global world is a huge market to be tapped by Japanese markets and its a sign of survival and not a sign of less nationalism in Japan.

And at the same time, to be honest Japanese food is becoming more popular as a South Korean too is becoming more popular as global consumers are willing to try different kinds of food with different kinds of tastes.

Yes, green tea is a major health product now, but at the same time, as global logistics costs have skyrocketed along the increase in demand for Japanese green tea, the price has increased significantly since the end of the pandemic.

Despite there being a supposed shortage of rice in Japan, shipments of Japanese rice is still being shipped globally as maybe the taste of Japanese rice is seen as being unique or it could just be an infatuation at the moment and the taste of rice produced in Japan tastes good just because it's Japanese.

But at the same time, the again, supposed shortage of rice production in Japan has impeded export rice as the powers to be just can't ship enough at they want, and to be fair, they can't even meet the needs of the domestic market much less global demand for Japanese rice at this time.

Rice is a major global product and many countries are able to produce rice so it's or like only Japan is able to produce rice which means there is significant competition which might limit the amount of rice that Japan wants or needs to ship globally.

The US is a top destination for many consumer products globally and green tea and seafood are examples of what US consumers might really like about Japanese food as some of the other offerings of Japanese food might not even be known by many US consumers.

And yes, the high US tariff situation might be having some effect but as long as US consumers continue to buy and want the products, Japanese suppliers and US importers are going to continue to bring to the US despite high tariffs.

Japanese food continues to be popular in many Asian countries and many Japanese restaurants are very common now in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, and even China too.

Yes, the diplomatic row with China moves into row 2.0 or maybe row 25.0 as both countries seem to take one step forward and then ten steps back and can never seem to gain any kind of diplomatic sustainably between the two.

And yes, despite the diplomatic row between the two countries trade continues on but always of course not as much as before as there are gaps in many products being shipped or not shipped to China and or course gaps in products shipped or not shipped to Japan.

Of course the Chinese like Japanese beer too and even the diplomatic row can't stop the flow of Japanese beer to Chinese consumers who might prefer a Japanese beer over a Chinese domestic beer.

It seems a little strange but again, there is supposed to a shortage or was a significant shortage of Japanese rice in the domestic market but because of contracts globally those maybe had to be fulfilled even it it meant less rice being sold in the Japanese domestic market.

Japanese chain restaurants are now everywhere in Asia, again such as in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and even in China and the US and even globally in the EU.

The global food market and or the global market of chain restaurants is significant and there are more and more Japanese restaurants also being opened every week which means the demand of Japanese rice globally continues to grow and probably will continue to grow as unfortunately the Japanese domestic market continues to decrease as the Japanese population just continues to decrease every year.

So Japanese rice and food producers probably have no choice but look outside Japan to the global food market to continue to increase their sales as again, there is only so much being bought in Japan which might not be enough to sustain many Japanese food producers.

So this always brings the discussion to the idea of immigration in Japan to increase the overall population in Japan in order to not only help producers and sellers in Japan but to help overall society in Japan despite some, and its a small but vocal group, who keep protesting that they don't want or need any more immigrants into Japan when its already known, that the majority of immigrant to any country bring needed skills and even more important need work values that can significantly help a country. But some in Japan again, like in some countries never get it.

Have a nice day!