TOKYO - The Japanese government said Tuesday the amount of still-edible food discarded in fiscal 2024 marked a record low for the third straight year, falling 30,000 tons from the previous year to an estimated 4.61 million tons.
"We will work to further reduce food waste by promoting donations to food banks," an official said. Such entities collect food items close to their best-before dates and distribute them to those experiencing food insecurity.
In the year through March 2025, food wasted by businesses including food makers totaled 2.37 million tons, up 60,000 tons from fiscal 2023, due to a rebound in demand for dining out after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the data. The government has been collecting comparable data since fiscal 2012.
But food waste generated by households fell 90,000 tons to 2.24 million tons, reflecting how consumers are increasingly becoming conscious about wasted food.
The government aims to reduce food waste by businesses to 2.19 million tons and by households to 2.16 million tons by fiscal 2030.
Food waste caused economic losses of 3.8 trillion yen ($23 billion) in fiscal 2024, or 31,097 yen on a per capita basis, according to the data.
According to the U.N. Environment Program's Food Waste Index report in 2024, the total food loss generated globally was about 1.05 billion tons in 2022.
