Japan (目で食べますが。。)

Wrote for my University Journal in 2019, but could not be published due to technical reasons.

目で食べますが。。(The food looks delicious but..)

19 million tons,

that is what Japan throws away perfectly eatable items every year. Japan's agricultural Ministry estimates that over 23 million tons of food was discarded in 2017; about 11 trillion yens, which is the monetary equivalent to Japan's annual agricultural corpus. Food accounts for nearly 32% of all household wastes in Tokyo and that is about 5000 tons per day, enough to keep 4.5 million people alive daily.

Yes, it is true that other developed nations waste food, but in Japan, the problem is paradoxical. Japan's 40% food self sufficiency is the lowest of all G-7 countries, which means the bulk of Japan's food supply is imported. And yet, a third is wasted.

According to magazine Kinyoubi, 90% of all government schools do not allow children back home food left over from school lunches. The situation stems from a 1995 food poisoning incident, in Osaka, in which 4 children died. The source of food poisoning was not known but it was clear that spoiled food was served. Still, the prohibition against taking left over food seems to have more to do with schools wanting to avoid possible law suits than preventing food poisoning.

In India, it is common for diners to take home left over food from their meal in restaurants. In Japan, such an option is conditional. Restaurants discourage taking home left over food because they say food may get spoiled but it is common for salarymen (officegoers) to bring sushi left over from restaurants after night out and sushi is generally raw.

The huge wastage of food occurs in Japan occurs when 750,000 people lack food security and 58% food is imported. Lunch boxes worth millions are thrown away daily from convenience stores. The waste amounts to trillions of yen annually, enough to feed millions of people daily.

The debate of food waste in Japan is now beginning to find a place in Japan. The Kamikatsu village in Japan became Japan's first Zero Food Waste village in Japan. But it is equally important to leave the problem for the government to handle. Global warming is slowly decreasing the food production in the world and it is time to stop food waste anywhere in the world. 

-subhav samarth