This week, GourmetPro will be at SKS Japan, the country’s largest food-tech gathering. Before the conference whirlwind, I sat down with UnlocX co-founders Hirotaka Tanaka and Akiko Okada, the organizers of SKS Japan, to ask how Japan’s foodtech ecosystem is changing and also what to expect from this year’s event.
Watch the full conversation here:
Or listen to it here:
There’s a lot happening in Japan’s food tech space and Hiro did not hedge. He pointed to a new mix of players and public momentum, highlighting that Japan’s food innovation has stepped into the second stage and that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been supportive of increasing the number of startups, making the sector very dynamic.
There were 2 points in our conversation that really reeled me in.
First, strength isn’t speed. Japan’s food value chain delivers stable, tasty, healthy, cost-efficient food, but that very efficiency makes it rigid for newcomers. Opening lanes for startups and new business teams is the next test.
Second, people first, then tech. As Akiko put it, consumers are not always ready to change their eating behavior easily, so the wins come from behavior-friendly innovation. This includes things like wellness-forward foods, regenerative thinking, and smart upcycling that are familiar and taste great.
There are a number of other challenges that are going to make the direction of evolution of food tech very important in the country.
Japan is aging, so adoption curves are slower unless change is effortless and respectful of habit, while also being affordable.
The supply chain’s hyper-efficiency can stall pilots in procurement unless there are sandboxes, joint ventures, or flexible vendor paths.
Venture money is cautious, but public funding is up. This is brilliant for proof, but unit economics and routes to scale still need to be developed.
Food security is a strategic pressure point: Japan imports roughly 10X what it exports, with calorie self-sufficiency around 38%. These ratios need to be improve significantly, and tech has the power to support this.
Succession in craft and agriculture is fragile too. Miso and soy breweries are shrinking, so pairing chef networks with tech matters if the country wants modernization without losing cultural IP.
And there’s a storytelling gap: Japan has world-class fermentation, flavor design, and ingredient craftsmanship, but hasn’t always packaged that know-how into momentum-building narratives.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is investing around US$500 million into agri-food startups, while non-food giants – from megabanks to developers – are stepping into food with labs and talent. The translation: we’ll see more real products to touch, taste, and test, and more cross-industry deals designed to push through the “rigidity” barrier.
SKS Japan 2025 leans into that shift, and GourmetPro will have a front-row seat to all the relevant insights and innovations! Follow me on LinkedIn for daily coverage of the event.
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