Japan

The Japanese were amongst the earliest adopters of industrial biotechnology, due no doubt to the familiarity of processing with micro-organisms in a country with a long tradition of making fermented food. They have established a world-class fermentation industry, particularly in specialised markets such as amino acids. However, they Japanese companies were also among the first to use bio-catalysts, and Mitsubishi Rayon was the first company to introduce enzyme technology to produce acrylamide. This is produced in a purer form using only 20% of the energy of the conventional chemical synthesis, and the technology is now in use round the world. Other Japanese companies, for example Kaneka, pioneered the manufacture of pharmaceutical building blocks using biotechnology.

Overall, Japanese bio-industry was estimated to have a turnover of $15 billion in 2003, 26% being in the chemicals sector. Clearly, Japan has a strong position in industrial biotechnology. However, the country does not have a strong agricultural base and does not have the capacity to supply home-grown biomass to industry at a competitive price to fuel future growth in the bio-processing sector. This is an important consideration, because most agricultural products are bulky and costly to transport; economically viable bio-refineries rely on a ready supply of biomass locally. This may tend to focus growth in bio-processing in Japan towards higher-value, niche sectors rather than bulk chemicals and bio-fuels.

An action plan covering biotechnology strategy guidelines was published by the government-sponsored Biotechnology Strategy Council in 2002 (ref 17). This deals with three strategic strands:

• Achieving health and longevity
• Food safety and functionality
• A sustainable society

In the five years to 2007, Japan aims to double its funding of biotechnology research and triple the number of researchers involved. A significant proportion of this will be directed towards industrial biotechnology: in contrast to the situation in Europe and the USA, Japan puts significantly more research money into biotechnology for health-oriented foods, the environment and power generation than for healthcare biotechnology.