New Japan law to aid food banks and spread food loss awareness

The Japanese parliament has passed a new law that aims to facilitate the use of food banks and create awareness for the food loss problem.

The number of food banks in Japan has risen recently. However, ambiguities related to responsibility over issues such as hygiene when providing food to them has hindered such donations. The new law requires the national government to examine and consider issues of responsibility related to those donations. The law aims to reduce the nation’s annual food loss, which is estimated at around 6.32 million tons.

The Food Loss Reduction Promotion Bill was passed on May 24 and will come into force in about six months’ time. Although it specifies that it is the responsibility of both the national government and local authorities to reduce food loss, the law lacks specific requirements for measures from companies or precise plans from authorities to enact such steps.

Specific measures contained in the new law include that the national government and local authorities both investigate the state of food loss and assist activities to help organizations such as Food Bank. The law also sets up food loss reduction promotion body within the Cabinet Office. It will be responsible for creating a basic policy to advance food loss reduction. The Cabinet will make the final decision on such policy.

Introducing Food Loss Reduction Day in Japan

Under the bill, October will become the annual Food Loss Reduction Month, and October 30 each year will be Food Loss Reduction Day. While corporate Japan has been taking measures to reduce food loss, food waste in households is still high.

In May, convenience store chains Seven-Eleven Japan Co. and Lawson Inc. started discounting rice balls and lunchboxes nearing the end of their shelf life. They will credit five percent of the price of those items to customers as shopping credits in the chains’ point programs. As of May, Lawson discards around 10% of its rice balls and lunchboxes as waste.

In a 2013 report, the United Nations estimated that about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally every year, while one in nine people – around 815 million – are undernourished. Among its sustainable development goals, the U.N. aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030.