To meat, or not to meat: The future of Japanese cellular agriculture
Taken together, Japan's vegan movement, its willingness to experiment with new technology, plus land shortages, it means the cultured meat scene may be set for the future.
TESSA TRICKS: Internationally, veganism is on the rise, thanks in no small part to a growing awareness of meat’s negative environmental impact… but “veganism is not for everyone,” says Yuki Hanyu, founder of IntegriCulture Inc. a Tokyo-based startup… This rings particularly true in Japan, where only 2.1 percent of the population is vegan, compared to 5 percent of the country’s 30 million visitors in 2018… Cellular meat, too, has yet to widely register on Japan’s public radar where, Hanyu says, “acceptability in Japan comes out much the same as it does in U.S. or European studies”… The global picture is Japan’s story writ large.
In 2005, meat overtook fish as the main protein source in the Japanese diet. Since then, demand has outpaced domestic production, with the domestic meat industry predicted to reach ¥2.6 trillion (about $23 billion) by 2023. In Japan, which has a food self-sufficiency rate of only 37 percent, this has not escaped the government’s notice. In 2019, it formed a “Vege Council” made up of politicians and representatives from vegan-related groups and nonpolitical organizations and contributed to a $2.7 million investment in “cellular agriculture” — aka lab-grown, or cultured, meat…
In a joint 2019 poll from Nissin Foods Holdings and Hirosaki University, when respondents who had little knowledge of the industry were asked “Would you want to try cellular meat?” only 6 percent replied “strongly agree,” 21 percent said “somewhat agree” and 44 percent either “somewhat” or “strongly” disagreed (29 percent had no opinion). But among people who already had some working knowledge of cellular meat, the percentage of those who definitely wanted to try it rose to 20 percent. But this is not enough for Hanyu, who says “surveys like this have been done so many times everywhere, but they’re missing one critical thing: the actual product”…
By day, IntegriCulture’s Hanyu is a shrewd CEO, but by night he lets his passion for cellular agriculture rip. Alongside IntegriCulture, he runs the Shojinmeat Project, a nonprofit intent on getting cellular agriculture in the hands of many. The ambition: Increase consumer acceptability. The strategy: Tap into Japan’s deep love of anime… Hanyu sees a future in which IntegriCulture’s CulNet System bioreactors exist in the home, the community and on an industrial scale. Owners will be able to “design” their own meat, altering the taste and nutrient profile to create signature dishes…
Taken together, Japan’s nascent vegan movement, desire for meat and willingness to experiment with new technology stand Hanyu in good stead. Add land shortages and continued funding interest to the mix and the scene may be set for his desired future. But the obstacles to cultured meat are as real in Japan as they are elsewhere. Even as cost is expected to drop and acceptability to rise, it remains to be seen if the technology can deliver at scale and compete with novel meat replacements. In the short term, Japan will need to focus on diversifying its protein sources. SOURCE…
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