Japan: ‘Up And Coming’ Nutraceutical Market

Government involvement, overseas markets and food safety influencing growth of market.

By Ron Bailey

Although the term “nutraceutical” is not in regular use in Japan and would not be known to most Japanese consumers, there is no question that the Japanese market should be considered one of the “up-and-coming” markets for nutraceutical ingredients and functional foods.
The traditional Japanese diet has been considered to be very healthy, with a focus on relatively small portions of seasonal fruits and vegetables as well as fish and shellfish, with rice as the staple. Traditionally, consumption of fat was quite limited and mostly plant-sourced rather than animal-sourced. Not all Japanese had daily access to the full traditional diet, however, and diet-related health issues were not uncommon. Calcium and iron deficiency was and is a concern for much of the population, particularly females. The frequent consumption of pickled and salted foods in the traditional diet was believed to be a major cause of the high incidence of stomach cancer in Japan.
At the same time, many components of traditional Japanese foods have recently been shown to provide added health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Green tea catechins for anti-caries and anti-cancer benefits, konn­yaku non-caloric fiber for weight loss and “beni koji” (red yeast) foods for cho­lesterol reduction are examples of nu­traceutical ingredients commonly consumed in Japan. The recent positive market ex­perience with these traditional ingredients has created an incentive for Japanese (and overseas) companies to conduct further research into the potential health-related benefits of other traditional food components.

Japanese Government Involvement. The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare’s National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo is charged with conducting and reporting the results of an annual national nutrition survey in Japan. The report is an up-to-date summary of the nutritional status of the Ja­panese population, with breakouts by sex, age, etc. The government uses the nutrition survey to help decide the focus of its public awareness campaigns each year. Calcium, for example, has been shown to be deficient in the Japanese diet across virtually all age groups and for both sexes for several years. As a result, there are many functional foods (beverages, food bars, breakfast cereals, yogurts and cheese, etc.) featuring added calcium to help make up this chronic dietary deficiency.

The government is also involved through the Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) regulatory process, which as of mid-June included 192 individually approved foods with “functional components” and allowed on-label health claims. The products all required the formal approval of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, so it can be expected that the health claims focus of the products was on those areas of primary concern to the Japanese government. Major areas of FOSHU health claims include blood cholesterol lowering, blood pressure control, calcium and iron benefits and gastrointestinal health maintenance.

For each FOSHU category of claims, there are also non-FOSHU functional foods on the market that are able to make off-label health-related claims (often nearly comparable to the approved FOSHU claims). It is now estimated that total retail sales of approved FOSHU products are approaching U.S.$3 billion, more than double sales only two years ago. The non-FOSHU functional foods market in Japan is several times larger, depending on what is included in the category, and has been the point of market entry for many products that eventually are converted to FOSHU status. The conversion of the ready-to-drink green tea beverage products, for example, would add more than $1 billion in retail sales to the FOSHU category. The conversion of the popular “Oranamin C” and “Lipovitan D” fortified “energy drinks” from Ohtsuka Pharmaceutical and Taisho Pharmaceutical, respectively, would add nearly $1.5 billion to the FOSHU category. Given the recent history of product sales increases following the conversion to FOSHU status, this is not an unreasonable expectation for the future.
Influences Of Overseas Markets. Ja­panese companies involved with nu­traceuticals and functional foods are very much aware of the success of the markets in other countries, including North America and Europe. Some of the recent “hit products” in Japan are using ingredients sourced from overseas, but often with the value added processing and research studies (often including small scale clinicals) conducted in Japan. Ex­amples include anthocyanin-rich blue­berries for eye health, lycopene-rich tomatoes for prostate cancer (not claimed on the label but allowed in print ads) and soy protein isolates and soy isoflavones for cholesterol reduction and osteoporosis. The interest in Western herbals such as St. John’s Wort and echinacea is relatively small but growing, based primarily on the market growth (until recently) in the U.S. and Europe.

Some of the more active Japanese companies are now aggressively marketing their nutraceutical ingredients overseas, with some success. Taiyo Kagaku has been winning “best technology” awards recently at food shows in Europe and the U.S., in part based on its unique green tea concentrates. Matsutani Kagaku has been marketing its indigestible dextrin corn starch-based low calorie fiber source in the U.S. for a few years. Meiji Seika has also been marketing its popular fructooligosaccharide prebiotic through a U.S. agent. All of these ingredients are successful nutraceuticals in Japan as well.
Food Safety Issues In Japan. There has been a number of widely publicized food safety issues in Japan re­cently that have served to highlight the im­portance of maintaining a safe basic food supply. Serious health problems have included microbial con­tamination from white radish (“dai­kon”) sprouts and a major microbial toxin contamination of low fat milk used as an ingredient in other dairy products. Concerns over potential microbial contamination have led to the incorporation of green tea an­timicrobial extracts in air and water purifiers. Publicity related to hospital-based infection problems and overprescribing of antibiotics has increased consumer interest in maintaining a “friendly” bacterial environment in the gut. Each public health incident has served to further educate Japanese consumers about the importance of healthy and safe eating, with the obvious objective of an im­proved quality of life. At the same time, these incidents have created opportunities for the introduction of new nutraceutical ingredients and functional foods, not to create additional food supply anxiety, but to re­assure Japanese consumers that health and safety-related issues are being properly addressed.

Ron Bailey is president of California Functional Foods and has been an independent consultant for the past 15 years, focusing primarily on the transfer of food technology between the U.S. and Japan. He can be reached at 165 Almond Street, Ashland, OR 97520; 541-488-3184; Fax: 541-488-3274; E-mail: bailey@mind.net.