Japan's farm exports rise 16% in 1st half of 2025, set record

The Mainichi

8 hours ago

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's agricultural, fisheries and forestry product exports in the first half of 2025 rose 15.5 percent from a year earlier to a record 809.7 billion yen ($5.5 billion), as sales in the United States increased sharply, the government said Monday.
The record for the January-June period followed a fall in the same period of the previous year. The turnaround came as Japan expanded sales channels in the United States and other areas following China's import ban on Japanese seafood in the wake of the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Exports were also likely helped by an increase in the number of Japanese restaurants operating overseas as awareness of the cuisine increased on the back of surging foreign tourism. Supermarkets outside the country are also selling more Japanese food, the farm ministry said.
The record figure came as the government aims to boost Japan's farm and seafood exports to 2 trillion yen by 2025, after exports in 2024 grew 3.6 percent from the previous year to a record 1.51 trillion yen.
But there is uncertainty over Japan's prospects of achieving the goal, as the United States will implement a 15 percent "reciprocal" tariff on Japanese imports on Thursday. China, however, is moving to resume imports of Japanese marine and other products.
By country and region, exports to the United States topped the list with 141.0 billion yen, up 22.0 percent, boosted by strong demand for scallops, green tea and yellowtail. The increase came despite the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a new 10 percent tariff in April.
Hong Kong ranked second with a 3.4 percent increase to 106.8 billion yen, followed by China, which saw 15.0 percent growth to 90.2 billion yen as exports of sake, timber logs and animal feed notably expanded, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
By item, exports of scallops surged 45.4 percent to 34.9 billion yen, while sauce mixed seasoning increased 7.6 percent to 34.0 billion yen and beef climbed 15.5 percent to 32.5 billion yen.