International think-tank network the Good Food Institute has selected Japan as the location for its newest nonprofit entity.

Japan will now join existing GFI affiliates in Singapore, India, Israel, Europe, Brazil and the US, which work collaboratively to accelerate food innovation around the world.

The development comes as global meat production is projected to increase by more than 50% by 2050 compared with 2012 levels – such pressures are particularly acute in Asia, which accounts for more than half of all protein consumption growth so far this century.

GFI Japan’s interim director, Kimiko Hong-Mitsui, said: “Alternative proteins made from plants, microbes and cultivated animal cells have the ability to satisfy Asia’s skyrocketing meat demand in a more secure and sustainable way. Just as Japan developed and exported the cutting-edge technologies that brought solar power and other renewables to the world, we now have an opportunity to pioneer the next generation of alternative proteins – the food equivalent of clean energy.”

Japan’s 101st Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, hailed alt-protein technologies, such as cultivated meat as an important part of ‘realising a sustainable food supply’. Kishida’s government has so far awarded tens of millions of dollars in funding to alt-protein companies – in January this year it invested $27.7 million in plant-based egg producer Umami United and cell-based meat biotech firm IntegriCulture.

Among GFI Japan’s top strategic priorities are identifying opportunities for greater government investment in alternative protein R&D and commercialisation, including in the national bioeconomy strategy; supporting local regulators’ efforts to develop a clear path to market for cultivated meat; better connecting Japan’s ‘future food’ companies to their international counterparts; providing timely translations of relevant reports and resources; and facilitating new collaborations between Japanese research institutions and alternative protein scientists around the globe.

GFI president and founder Bruce Friedrich added: “Reimagining how meat is made is one of humanity’s greatest untapped opportunities. Japan’s world-class R&D ecosystem will play a critical role in supercharging alternative proteins and pioneering the breakthrough technologies our planet urgently needs.”

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