In spite of the current economical crisis Japan's food market has great potential  for European suppliers. Japan is not only one of the biggest food importers but also does produce foods and drinks worth 23.3 trillion Yen (170 billion Euro) in 2008. Compared to 2007 this is a growth of 1.7%.

At the latest Japanese food fair "Foodex" (03.-06.March 2009) many West European nations were represented by their own country's pavilion, displaying booth of sweets, biscuits, cheese, grains, drinks, beer & wine, champaign besides many other processed food items. Despite the excellent image of European food brands among Japanese consumers, many European manufacturers are still not represented on the Japanese market yet. See import examples from Germany to Japan in the table below, number from the Japan Tariff Association, issued 02/2009:

Japan has a very low self-sufficiency rate of just 41% - which means it has to import almost 60% of all foods consumed in the country (see article Japan ranks #1 on food imports among G8 (60% imports). Therefore, Japan provides many business opportunities for foreign foods manufacturers if they can supply with quality products, both in branded and the private-label markets.

Current trends on the Japanese food market include premium chocolate besides other sweets as well as health foods. There are many European brands already successful in Japan, such as Valrhona, Haagen Dasz or Haribo, many other to name here. European manufacturers of vitamin products, natural foods and special functional foods do also increasingly well in Japan.

It may be true that entering the Japanese market at first is a challenge as quality expectations are high and customer service demanding - but once in the market established, foreign products  do generally well and enjoy long-term sales with increasing brand power among Japanese consumers. Western quality products are overall very popular. Also, Japanese people spend a bigger part of their monthly budget on foods (15-17% in average - compared to 9-12% for Europeans and just 5-7% of US-Americans), partly caused by the high rate of food imports to Japan.