Japan enacts bill to reduce food loss

May 24, 2019

Tokyo--The Diet, Japan's parliament, passed into law Friday a bill to promote measures for reducing food loss, or food that can be eaten but is thrown away.

The lawmaker-sponsored bill was adopted unanimously at a plenary session of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. The bill passed the other chamber, the House of Representatives, earlier this month.

The law, which will come into effect within six months after its promulgation, defines the roles of central and local governments, companies and consumers in making efforts to address the problem of food loss as a nationwide movement.

Of the total 27.59 million tons of food waste in Japan in fiscal 2016, about 6.43 million tons of food could still be eaten, according to the agriculture ministry.

The new law obliges the central government to formulate basic policies on the promotion of measures to reduce food loss. It requires prefectural and municipal governments to make efforts to devise programs for food loss reduction.

Companies will be urged, under the law, to cooperate with national and local governments in the implementation of their reduction measures, while consumers will be asked to voluntarily work on cutting down food waste, by reviewing how they buy food, for example.

The law also stipulates the establishment at the Cabinet Office of a panel comprising experts and related cabinet ministers for discussing ways to lessen food loss.

In addition, it seeks to support the activities of food banks that provide people in need with still-edible food offered by central and local governments and companies. Jiji Press