HW drinks and packaged food market size in Japan 2018-2025

In 2021, the retail sales value of health and wellness (HW) packaged food and beverages in Japan amounted to around 55.1 billion U.S. dollars. The sector was forecast to grow steadily and exceed 57 billion dollars in 2025.
HW food and beverages include products categorized as naturally healthy, fortified and functional, free from allergens, better-for-you, and organic products. Naturally healthy food and drinks, referring to products with natural substances considered beneficial to health, accounted for almost half of the retail sales of the HW food products market in Japan.

Organic groceries – the bud of the market

While naturally healthy products dominated the sector owing to a strong performing beverage segment, organic groceries stood at the bottom of the ranking. Even though promotion efforts of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have boosted demand in the organic food market in recent years, high prices and unsteady supply have inhibited market growth. To stabilize supply chains, the Japanese government complemented domestic production regulations with bilateral trade agreements under organic equivalency systems. This has allowed the distribution of imported foods under the Japanese “Organic JAS” label, as long as as long as they were certified under a comparable system overseas, encouraging investments in the budding segment.

The demand for health and wellbeing

In the last decades, Japanese households shifted the center of their lives towards the bustling metropolitan areas. Quick meals and long work hours accompany this lifestyle, much to the benefit of the convenience food market. But as the awareness of lifestyle diseases and their correlation with physical and mental health increases, a healthy diet has returned to consumers' focus. TV advertising heavily promotes health foods and supplements as daily companions to this healthy lifestyle. Marketed as an energy booster and supporter of bodily functions, manufacturers aim for market growth by targeting office employees and other consumers with busy schedules.