The Japanese government and several private entities are still pushing citizens to consume insects despite the nation’s impeding population collapse due to its ever-plummeting fertility rate.
(LifeSiteNews) — It is already a well-established fact that Japan is suffering from a rapidly declining population, with 2023 marking the 13th consecutive year of population decrease for the country.
Despite this trend, for years, the Japanese government and several private entities, such as Tokyo-based startup Semitama as well as food technology company Gryllus Co., have been encouraging Japanese citizens to consume insects, alluding to the country’s declining agricultural output and tradition of entomophagy, or insect eating, that most Japanese today do not practice on a daily basis, save for a minority like Shoichi Uchiyama, one of Japan’s most notable insect enthusiasts.
Arguably, entomophagy entered the limelight more prominently in Japan following the publication of a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN) in 2013 that alleged that people should consume insects as they are reportedly efficient at transforming food into protein and could be a solution to the purported food security concerns.
After the globalist European Union (EU) in 2018 claimed that whole insects and their ingredients were “novel foods,” giving their official stamp of approval that insects should be regarded as food, Japanese companies such as TAKEO Inc., (2014), BugMo(2018) and Bugsfarm (2018) launched new businesses that manufactured insect-based products and promoted them in various ways. Promoting pre-packaged insect snacks made in ways that downplayed the original ingredients (insects) in the snacks was one such tactic. An example of such insect snacks would be the cricket senbei (rice cracker) products found in outlets belonging to Japanese retailer Mujirushi Ryōhin, or Muji for short.
“Unlike in the Western countries where insect food is primarily viewed as a healthy and sustainable alternative, Japanese consumers tend to value novel, fun and thrilling experiences of eating insects, which you want to share with friends and on social media,” Ryota Mitsuhashi, the CTO of TAKEO Inc. and a founding member of the Edible Insects Science Research Association, told Forbes in 2020.
TAKEO Inc., a business which sells an assortment of dried and packaged bugs and even has a specialty cafe called Take-Noko selling beetles, crickets, worms, tarantulas and scorpions, revealed that it had entered a capital partnership with frozen food giant Nichirei Corp in 2022, citing the “role insects could play in the future of food security.”
Having caught the bug for insect eating (pun intended), Komatsushima’s West Komatsushima High School in Japan’s Tokushima Prefecture tried to promote insect eating by serving pumpkin croquettes with cricket powder used instead of ground meat. In turn, Japanese mainstream media outlets like Kyodo News were quick to citestudents who eventually gave the insect croquettes a good rating despite showing initial hesitancy.
“I don’t like looking at bugs, but surprisingly, it tasted good,” Kyodo News quoted student Keisuke Inoue as saying. “I couldn’t tell it contained insects,” Inoue added.
Likewise, Kazuki Shimizu, who runs a YouTube channel promoting insect-based cooking and is a self-proclaimed insect food lover, told The Japan Times in 2021:
When the perception toward eating insects changes, I want to share that moment with as many people as I can.
Unfortunately for Shimizu, consuming insects continues to be perceived negativelyamong many Japanese consumers, just like their Western counterparts. For instance, when Komatsushima’s West Komatsushima High School decided to make cricket powder as a permanent ingredient in school lunches, parents and others online began to lambast the school for allegedly “forcing” students to eat insect-based foods. Undoubtedly, the school, emboldened by the apparent approval of its students in its cricket-based pumpkin croquette experiment, had crossed the line.
Even Kyodo News ran an article in March 2024 this year admitting the various challenges insect businesses faced in Japan, citing “soaring prices of ingredients and continuing resistance among consumers to making insects part of their diet.” The same 2024 Kyodo News article quoted Gryllus as saying that some people remain opposed to the idea of eating crickets:
‘Complaints have poured in by phone, and it is making the situation really tough for us,’ a spokesperson for Gryllus said.
Also, the article elaborated that Indetail, a startup involved in the cricket food business in Sapporo, Japan was ordered by the local district court to begin bankruptcy proceedings.
As per the Sapporo branch of credit research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd., sales of Indetail’s cricket products did not materialize, “causing a deterioration in financing for the operator” and a situation whereby “total liabilities exceeded 200 million yen, including from its group companies,” Kyodo News reported.
Indeed, insect-based food products in Japan, including insect snacks, are not exactly cheap either, further deterring potential consumers already reluctant to eat insects due to existing negative perceptions on it.
For example, a 2022 Euronews article on Japanese insect food products sold in vending machines stated that “deep-fried insects, including crickets and grasshoppers” “sprinkled with salt” and “chocolate flavored” cost between “1,000 to 2,600 yen, or between €6 and €19”.
Another 2022 article by SoraNews24 reported that a do-it-yourself (DIY) cricket ramen (Japanese noodle dish) from the Antcicada company that supposedly contains a hundred crickets with each serving cost “2,200 yen (US$16).”
In contrast, Japanese consumers can get steaks, beef on rice (Japanese gyudon), and beef burgers (with real meat) at cheaper prices than these insect-based foods. What is more, Japan, as an island nation, has been blessed by a wide variety of seafood as alternatives to meat.
Independent Japanese journalist Masako Ganaha, notable for getting rebuffed in 2023 by World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab when trying to interview him in Davos, told “Health Ranger” Mike Adams that Japan’s sovereignty, culture and people are presently under attack by the same globalists trying to destroy the United States.
Undeniably, Japan is as vulnerable as other countries like the United States when it comes to the top-down diktats from globalists and climate czars on the so-called “need” to eat bugs. That being said, the populations of Japan and many Western countries are not “growing,” unlike what Chef Joseph Yoon, an Edible Foods Ambassador for Brooklyn Bugs to create insect-based recipes, claimed on “Let Them Eat Bugs:
‘How can we sustainably feed the growing population around the world? And it doesn’t suggest that we want to get rid of anything. How do we add something to our diets and maybe look towards the past for solutions for the future? They’re incredibly nutritious. They’re sustainable, but most importantly, they can be prepared absolutely deliciously,’ Yoon claimed at that time.
Evidently, Yoon, and many others of his ilk, are not in sync with the reality of struggling Japanese food businesses due to reduced consumer spending and a graying population.
Perhaps it would do Yoon some good to actually visit Japan to have a look at the millions of uninhabited houses in the country owing to population decline before spewing his views on demographic trends.
