Policy Directory
This page tracks Japanese agricultural policy changes with direct relevance to foreign land buyers, investors, and market-entry professionals. Entries are added once verified, so the list reflects what has been confirmed so far rather than the complete universe of regulatory change in Japanese agriculture.
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Latest Policy Updates
Basic Act on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas
食料・農業・農村基本法の一部を改正する法律
Policy Status — In force since 2024/06/05
The Basic Act sets the goals that Japan’s other farm and food laws are built to deliver. The Diet first passed it in 1999 and rewrote it in June 2024, the first major overhaul in twenty-five years.
Three problems drove the rewrite. Farms lost workers faster than they could recruit replacements. Imported fertiliser, feed and energy all rose in price. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine then showed how quickly food supply chains break.
The new version puts six goals at the centre of national policy: food security for every person in Japan, steady imports, higher farm exports, production that does less environmental damage, prices that cover real costs, and supply chains that survive a shock. It also requires the government to adopt a Basic Plan and measure progress against set targets.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
The six goals show where public money and policy support will concentrate for the rest of the decade. Suppliers and investors working on export capacity, environmental technology or supply chain resilience can expect funded programmes and a warm reception from prefectural authorities.
The Act itself grants nothing and demands nothing, and nobody applies under it. Its use is in reading the laws that follow. Rice reserve duties, seed export controls and cost-based pricing rules all trace back to one of the six goals, and become far easier to anticipate once read as parts of a single programme.
Key dates
|
2026/08/31 |
FY2027 budget requests due, showing how the goals are funded |
|
2025/04/11 |
Basic Plan adopted by Cabinet decision |
|
2024/06/05 |
Act commences |
Primary sources
- MAFF — bills submitted to the 213th Diet, ordinary session (第213回国会（令和6年 常会）提出法律案)
- e-Gov — consolidated text of the Basic Act (食料・農業・農村基本法)
Basic Plan for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas (2025)
食料・農業・農村基本計画 (Shokuryō, Nōgyō, Nōson Kihon Keikaku)
Policy Status — Adopted 2025/04/11
The Basic Plan turns the Basic Act’s goals into an action list. The Cabinet approves it, and it runs for about five years.
The rewritten Act of 2024 requires a plan built on its new goals, so this is the first one written to that standard. The agricultural policy council developed it between late 2024 and early 2025.
It sets targets and directions across food security, how much Japan can produce at home, exports, buying from abroad, restructuring farm businesses, environmental measures and farm technology.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
The Plan names private investment, companies entering farming, foreign workers and international supply chains as tools of national policy rather than as concessions. Prefectural authorities and prospective Japanese partners read central government endorsement carefully, which makes the Plan worth quoting in a proposal.
Nothing in the Plan changes a rule. Farmland permissions, residence status and investment screening all run under their own laws and continue unaffected.
Key dates
|
2030 |
Five-year planning period ends, approximately |
|
2026/08/31 |
FY2027 budget requests due, showing which elements are funded |
|
2025/04/11 |
Plan adopted by Cabinet decision |
Primary sources
- MAFF — Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Plan (食料・農業・農村基本計画)
Farmland Acquisition Rules for Foreign Applicants
農地法施行規則及び農地法関係事務に係る処理基準の改正
Policy Status — In force since 2025/04/01
Since April 2025, a foreign applicant buying or leasing farmland in Japan must tell the local agricultural committee their residence status, how long they may stay, and the date that permission ends. That comes on top of the permission every buyer or lessee already needs from the same committee.
MAFF and members of the governing party pushed for the change after farmland acquired by or through foreign-linked companies was left unfarmed or turned to other uses. Both treated the pattern as a food security problem.
Committees have long had to judge whether an applicant will actually farm the land and keep farming it. The expiry date on a residence permit now forms part of that judgement.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
Foreign buyers with secure residence face the same process as Japanese buyers. Permanent residence carries no period of stay, so an applicant holding it enters no expiry date on the form. Every other status carries a fixed period and a renewal date, and the committee now sees both.
MAFF has not set a minimum amount of time that must remain on an applicant’s residence status, and an approaching expiry date does not automatically lead to refusal. Instead, the committee considers it as part of the broader question of whether the applicant is likely to continue farming the land. Someone close to renewal may therefore choose to renew before applying, removing one source of uncertainty.
Neither this change nor the Farmland Act bars foreign ownership.
Key dates
|
Pending |
Further rules under review by the Cabinet Secretariat panel, entry 18 |
|
2025/04/01 |
Applicants required to identify residence status, period of stay and expiry date |
|
2023/09/01 |
Applicants required to identify nationality |
Primary sources
Agricultural Management Development Plan
(investment route)
農業経営発展計画制度 (Nōgyō Keiei Hatten Keikaku)
Policy Status — Open since 2025/04/01
The Agriculture Management Development Plan is a MAFF approval route that lets a farmland-owning company raise more outside capital than the standard voting-rights cap normally allows. That cap exists because Japanese law requires most voting control in a farmland-owning company to stay with people who farm. It limits how much the company can raise from investors who aren’t themselves farming the land, including outside and foreign capital. Farm businesses needed capital the cap wouldn’t let them raise, and food manufacturers wanted firmer control over their supply chains. This route answers both.
A qualifying farm company writes a development plan and applies to MAFF. Once MAFF approves the plan, a food business it already trades with, or an approved investment fund, may take a larger stake than the ceiling normally allows.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
This route is the only established way to take a substantial equity stake in a company that owns Japanese farmland, which makes it the mechanism behind any acquisition aimed at landholding farm businesses.
MAFF sets a high bar. The applicant needs five years as a certified farmer, must appear in the local Regional Plan, and must add shareholder approvals covering land sales, land conversion and director appointments. MAFF approved one plan in the system’s first year, which shows how narrow the gate runs in practice.
MAFF approval settles nothing about investment screening. No published material shows a MAFF approval replacing a notification under the Foreign Exchange Act, so both processes run in parallel.
Key dates
|
Ongoing |
MAFF publishes approvals; a second would show the route works in practice |
|
2026/03/27 |
First and only approved plan recorded |
|
2025/04/01 |
System opens to applications |
Primary sources
Regional Plans and the Farmland Bank
地域計画制度及び農地中間管理機構制度 (chiiki keikaku / nōchi chūkan kanri kikō)
Policy Status — Lease consolidation in force since 2025/04/01
A Regional Plan is a municipal document, with maps, that names who is expected to farm each plot of farmland in the area. The Farmland Bank is a prefectural body that leases farmland from owners and re-leases it to the farmer or company the Regional Plan names for that land. Despite the name, it is not a financial institution.
Most of Japan’s farmland sits in small plots owned by aging farmers with no successor. Before the Regional Plan system, matching each retiring farmer’s land to a willing successor happened one parcel at a time, and that pace couldn’t keep up with how fast farmers were retiring.
Since April 2023, each municipality has been required to write a Regional Plan naming who is expected to farm every plot, including land whose owner has no successor lined up. The Farmland Bank then leases those plots and re-leases them as consolidated blocks to the operators the plan names.
Since April 2025, a municipality can no longer arrange these leases directly. Leases now run through Farmland Bank promotion plans instead.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
Appearing in the Regional Plan for the area you want to farm decides whether your company can use the Agricultural Management Development Plan investor route at all — that route only exists for farmland-owning corporations, and MAFF requires Regional Plan listing as one of its approval conditions.
Buying or leasing a single plot directly from an owner still works under Article 3 of the Farmland Act, and this still happens, for individual operators as well as companies. What’s changed is consolidation: joining several plots into one workable block now goes through the Farmland Bank rather than through direct arrangements with landowners.
Key dates
|
Ongoing |
MAFF publishes approvals; a second would show the route works in practice |
|
2026/03/27 |
First and only approved plan recorded |
|
2025/04/01 |
System opens to applications |
Primary sources
Important Land Survey Act
重要施設周辺及び国境離島等における土地等の利用状況の調査及び利用の規制等に関する法律
Policy Status — In force since 2022/09/20
The Important Land Survey Act lets the government investigate who owns and uses land in mapped zones around defence sites, coastguard facilities, important infrastructure and remote border islands. Investigators can look at owners’ and users’ nationality and how the land is used.
Land near sensitive sites changed hands for years without anyone recording who held it, and politicians pressed for a way to find out.
The government designates two kinds of zones around each protected site: a Monitoring Zone and a Special Monitoring Zone. The Special Monitoring Zone carries one additional rule: transferring ownership, or a right aimed at acquiring ownership, of land or buildings of 200 square metres or more requires notifying the government first. Leases, mortgages and other non-ownership rights aren’t covered. Where the government finds a use, in either zone, that interferes with a protected facility, it can recommend or order that the use stop.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
This law does not ban foreign purchasers. English-language coverage that describes it as a foreign ownership ban is incorrect.
The Cabinet Office publishes maps showing every Monitoring Zone and Special Monitoring Zone. Anyone can check them before a purchase near a base, port, airport or border island to see whether the property falls inside one.
A farmland purchase that already needs Article 3 permission under the Farmland Act does not need separate notification under this law, since the farmland process already screens it. The land still sits inside the zone, and the government can still investigate it. Only the notification step is skipped.
Key dates
|
Ongoing |
Cabinet Office publishes current designations by prefecture |
|
2022 onward |
Government designates zones in successive rounds |
|
2022/09/20 |
Act commences in full |
Primary sources
Food System Act and Cost-Based Price Formation
食品等の持続的な供給を実現するための食品等事業者による事業活動の促進及び食品等の取引の適正化に関する法律
Policy Status — Pricing rules in force since 2026/04/01
The Food System Act and Cost-Based Price Formattion sets rules for how food businesses deal with each other, covering processors, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants rather than farmers alone.
Japanese farmers absorbed years of rising input costs without recovering them in price, because buyers held prices flat. The government concluded that a food supply resting on loss-making farmers cannot be secure.
When one party asks to negotiate and explains which costs moved, the other side must make a real effort to negotiate. Businesses must also consider proposals to change trading habits that block sustainable supply. MAFF can set standards, issue guidance, make recommendations and name businesses publicly. For designated products, approved bodies may publish cost indicators, and a separate certification route offers financing support.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
A foreign-owned processor, wholesaler, retailer or restaurant group operating in Japan must negotiate in good faith when a supplier asks to discuss a cost increase, and must consider MAFF’s proposals for changing trading practices that block sustainable supply. These duties apply on the same terms as they apply to Japanese firms.
MAFF identifies four ways a business ignores the duty to negotiate in good faith: refusing to discuss price after a supplier explains a cost increase, cutting prices because the supplier receives a subsidy, setting a delivery price from what shoppers will accept, and refusing to cooperate on fixing trading practices.
MAFF can publish the name of a business that commits one of these failures. It built a dedicated inspection unit, the Food G-men, in October 2025 to gather the evidence behind that decision.
Key dates
|
Ongoing |
Approved bodies develop cost indicators for designated products |
|
2026/04/01 |
Pricing and trading duties commence |
|
2025/10/01 |
Certification route opens and food compliance offers begin work |
Primary sources
Food Supply Difficulty Contingency Measures Act
食料供給困難事態対策法 (Shokuryō Kyōkyū Konnan Jitai Taisaku Hō)
Policy Status — In force since 2025/04/01
The Food Supply Difficulty Contingency Measures Act sets rules for how food businesses deal with each other, covering processors, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants rather than farmers alone.
Japanese farmers absorbed years of rising input costs without recovering them in price, because buyers held prices flat. The government concluded that a food supply resting on loss-making farmers cannot be secure.
When one party asks to negotiate and explains which costs moved, the other side must make a real effort to negotiate. Businesses must also consider proposals to change trading habits that block sustainable supply. MAFF can set standards, issue guidance, make recommendations and name businesses publicly. For designated products, approved bodies may publish cost indicators, and a separate certification route offers financing support.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
Coverage in this law depends on a business’s scale, but there is no single published threshold. MAFF sets the size cutoff separately for each food category, working through consultation with businesses and industry associations to build a list of who counts. A foreign-owned trading house, importer or retailer large enough to appear on that list carries the same duties as a Japanese business on it: cooperate when MAFF asks, and if MAFF declares a situation serious, submit an instructed plan covering imports, shipping, sales or production.
A business faces a penalty for failing to submit an instructed plan. It faces no penalty for missing the volumes the plan describes. English commentary that describes this law as forcing production loses that distinction.
A business does not know it is on MAFF’s list until MAFF or an industry association contacts it through that consultation process, which runs on an ongoing basis rather than as something a business can settle unilaterally in advance.
Key dates
|
None to date |
Government has declared no supply difficulty |
|
22025/04/11 |
Cabinet adopts the Basic Policy for implementation |
|
2025/04/01 |
Act and implementing rules commence |
Primary sources
Employment-for-Skill-Development System in Agriculture
育成就労制度 (ikusei shūrō seido)
Policy Status — Enacted 2024/06/21; commences 2027/04/01
The Employment-for-Skill-Development system in Agriculture replaces the Technical Intern Training Program. MAFF covers six fields under it: agriculture, fisheries, food manufacturing, food service, forestry and wood products.
The old programme claimed to transfer skills to developing countries while it supplied labour to short-staffed industries. That gap drew years of criticism over how workers were treated and over rules stopping them changing employer. The new system states plainly that it exists to develop and keep workers in sectors that cannot fill jobs.
Specified Skilled Worker No. 1 (特定技能1号) is a separate, longer-standing visa status, created in 2019, that lets a worker take a job in a designated field immediately, without further training. It caps a worker’s total time in Japan at five years and does not allow their family to join them. A second tier, Specified Skilled Worker No. 2, removes that cap and allows family to join, but a worker has to qualify for it separately, after reaching No. 1 first.
Employment-for-Skill-Development exists to prepare a worker for that transition. After roughly three years under the new system, a worker can move to Specified Skilled Worker No. 1 by passing a skills test and meeting a Japanese-language requirement, currently set at a level equivalent to JLPT N4. The system also sets rules on changing employer during those three years, licensing requirements for the bodies that supervise the arrangement, and an approved development plan for each individual worker.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
Any employer wanting to bring in workers who don’t already hold a qualifying visa status must hire them through this system from April 2027, whether the business is Japanese-owned or foreign-owned. An employer hiring only domestic staff, or hiring foreign workers who already hold Specified Skilled Worker status, isn’t affected.
Employers must belong to the Agricultural Employment-for-Skill-Development Council, which MAFF established on 25 June 2026, and must submit proof of membership with immigration applications. Missing this one requirement stops an application cold.
Supervising bodies, the organizations that oversaw workers under the old Technical Intern Training system, face tougher licensing requirements under the new system, and an old licence does not carry across automatically. An operator working through an intermediary whose licence hasn’t been renewed loses that intermediary’s ability to process applications.
Key dates
|
Pending |
MAFF publishes the application procedure on its foreign worker page |
|
2027/04/01 |
System commences, date fixed by Cabinet Order |
|
2026/06/25 |
MAFF establishes the Agricultural Council |
Primary sources
Smart Agricultural Technology Utilization Promotion Act
農業の生産性の向上のためのスマート農業技術の活用の促進に関する法律 (Sumāto Nōgyō Gijutsu Katsuyō Sokushin Hō)
Policy Status — In force since 2024/10/01
Smart agricultural technology means tools like sensors, drones, automated machinery and farm-management software that let a farm run with fewer people. The Smart Agriculture Technology Utilization Promotion Act creates two MAFF certification routes built around that technology: one for farmers adopting it, and the development and supply plan, for the companies building and supplying it.
Japan loses farmland every year as farmers retire without a successor. Some of that land moves to farms that choose to take it on, and those farms grow larger. Recruitment alone cannot supply the labour those larger farms need, which makes replacing labour with technology necessary rather than a choice.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
A foreign-owned farm operator that qualifies as a farmer or agricultural corporation under Japan’s existing rules can apply for the production-method innovation route on the same basis as a Japanese one — neither certification route in this law states a separate ownership or nationality test. Qualifying means adopting smart-agriculture technology together with a new production method suited to it, at meaningful scale, and this can be done directly, jointly with other farmers, or through a smart-agriculture service provider rather than owning the equipment outright.
For an agritech supplier, certification under the development and supply plan opens preferential treatment in named MAFF budget programmes, including the FY2024 supplementary-budget package for accelerating smart-agriculture technology development and supply, and special financing terms through Japan Finance Corporation, which both certification routes can use. Certified startups also gain access to NARO’s research and development facilities. Certification grants no permission to operate: the supplier still needs a Japanese company, tax registration, product approvals and, where relevant, an investment notification.
Certification also carries weight with Japanese distributors and prefectural extension services.
Key dates
|
Annual |
MAFF revises the named budget programmes each fiscal year |
|
2024/10/01 |
Act commences and applications open |
Primary sources
- MAFF — Smart Agricultural Technology Utilization Promotion Act overview (スマート農業技術活用促進法)
- e-Gov — consolidated text of the Smart Agricultural Technology Utilization Promotion Act (農業の生産性の向上のためのスマート農業技術の活用の促進に関する法律)
MIDORI Acceleration GX Plan
みどり加速化GXプラン (Midori Kasokuka GX Puran / MIDORI BOOST)
Policy Status — Adopted 2026/06/25
The MIDORI Acceleration GX Plan sets what MAFF will push hardest on green (midori) farming through to about 2030, under the working name MIDORI BOOST. Green farming here means cutting the environmental cost of producing food: less fertiliser and pesticide use, less carbon released, less strain on soil and water, while keeping farms productive enough to stay in business.
Japan adopted its MIDORI Strategy in 2021, with targets running to 2050. Five years in, MAFF concluded that the pace of the original strategy no longer matched the pace of the problem: climate damage to production was accelerating faster than the 2050 timeline was built to handle, even as companies showed more interest in green farming. MAFF responded with a shorter, more concrete plan to close that gap.
Its priorities cover pulling in private green investment, creating financial structures and markets for trading environmental value, improving climate adaptation technology, strengthening input and production systems, expanding organic farming across whole areas, and tying the food chain together. MAFF has said the plan will feed the five-year review of the separate MIDORI Act, the law that certifies eco-friendly farming businesses, expected from FY2027.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
The plan shows where green funding goes, and names private capital and international collaboration as part of the design rather than an afterthought. An investor building a fund or green finance product for Japanese agriculture will find the sections on financial structures for green investment and environmental value trading the operative material.
Nobody applies under the plan and no subsidy flows from it. Its value lies in seeing which programmes MAFF will fund and which technologies it wants, ahead of the FY2027 budget request in August.
Key dates
|
FY2027 |
Five-year review of the MIDORI Act expected |
|
2030 |
Concentrated implementation period ends, approximately |
|
2026/06/25 |
MIDORI Strategy Headquarters adopts the plan |
Primary sources
- MAFF — press release finalizing the MIDORI Acceleration GX Plan (みどり加速化GXプランを決定)
- MAFF — MIDORI strategy and green food-system policy hub (みどりの食料システム戦略)
Restriction of Foreign Investment Filing Exemptions
対内直接投資等に関する政令等の改正
Policy Status — In force since 2025/05/19
Restriction of foreign investment filing exemptions narrows who can use an existing exemption from advance investment-screening filings under Japan’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, effective 2025.
Officials grew concerned that investors tied to foreign state intelligence gathering were using exemptions to buy into sensitive industries.
Investors who must cooperate with a foreign government’s intelligence collection can no longer use the exemption for designated industries. The same amendment formally created two related classifications, a Specified Foreign Investor and a Quasi-Specified Foreign Investor, that carry the same filing requirement.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
An exemption an investor used on an earlier transaction does not carry over to a new one. Eligibility resets with each investment: the designated-industry list and the investor’s own classification are checked fresh against that specific deal, not against what applied last time. An investor cleared once for a non-agricultural acquisition can still trigger the filing requirement on a separate agricultural investment if either the list or the investor’s own classification has changed since.
A filing requirement depends on two things together: the current designated-industry list, and what the target business actually does, not what it’s called. A food processor handling certain inputs, or a farm business running a technology arm, can land inside the designated-industry list even when its main activity looks unrelated. The classification in force at the time of the deal decides, not the company’s own description of itself.
Key dates
|
Ongoing |
Government revises the designated-industry list periodically |
|
Pending |
2026 amendment, entry 13, will supersede parts of this |
|
2025/05/19 |
Amendments commence |
Primary sources
2026 Inward Investment Screening Amendment
外国為替及び外国貿易法の一部を改正する法律
Policy Status — Promulgated 2026/06/05; main provisions not yet commenced
The 2026 inward investment screening amendment widens what counts as a foreign investment in Japan and changes who reviews it.
A government review of the screening system found a structural gap: an investor could take control of an overseas company that already held a Japanese business, and Japanese screening would never see the deal.
Screening now catches indirect acquisitions: control gained by taking over the overseas parent rather than the Japanese business directly. Investors must now spell out, as part of the filing itself, the concrete measures they will take to remove a security risk, not just disclose that one exists. Tighter rules also catch arrangements made through non-resident intermediaries on behalf of a higher-risk investor. The government gains power to demand reports on investments outside the designated-industry list where a security risk appears later. Alongside these, the Ministry of Finance and the sector ministry must now consult the heads of other relevant government agencies where needed to judge whether a deal falls within screening.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
An acquisition newly captured by this amendment, such as one reached indirectly through an overseas parent company, still runs under the current screening rules if it closes before the commencement date. Timing decides which regime applies.
Any structure reaching a Japanese agricultural or food business through a company incorporated outside Japan now falls within screening, because the amendment targets exactly that route.
The consultation requirement changes who reads the file. The Finance Ministry and MAFF handled agricultural screening between them; the National Security Secretariat, the Foreign Ministry and the Defence Ministry can now join, which lengthens reviews and widens the questions asked.
Key dates
|
Pending |
Cabinet Order fixing commencement, not issued as at 2026/07/31 |
|
2027/06/05 |
Outside date for commencement of the main provisions |
|
2026/06/05 |
Government promulgates the amendment as Act No. 30 of 2026 |
Primary sources
FY2027 MAFF Budget Request
令和9年度農林水産予算概算要求
Policy Status — Pending; not published as at 2026/07/31
The FY2027 MAFF budget request is the ministry’s funding submission for the fiscal year starting April 2027, filed each August after the Cabinet agrees the ground rules for that year’s requests.
The Cabinet recorded its formal understanding of the FY2027 ground rules on 30 July 2026.
As of this entry’s most recent check (31 July 2026), MAFF had not yet published its FY2027 request, which is due by the 31 August deadline above. The ministry’s budget page still lists the FY2026 submission as its most recent entry.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
The budget request gives the earliest firm reading of which policies get funded, months ahead of the final budget.
This cycle will show the money behind the new paddy policy from FY2027 (entry 22), the MIDORI GX package , and the structural transformation programme (entry 21). An operator timing a market entry or partnership around Japanese public support learns more from the August document than from waiting for December.
Key dates
|
2026/07/30 |
Cabinet records its understanding of FY2027 request ground rules |
|
2026/08/31 |
Ministries submit requests |
|
2026/12 |
Government ordinarily settles the final budget |
Primary sources
Temporary JRA Levy for Agricultural Structural Change
農業構造転換の推進に必要な施策の集中的な実施の財源に充てるための日本中央競馬会の国庫納付金の納付に関する臨時措置法
Policy Status — In force since 2026/03/31
The temporary JRA levy for agricultural structural change requires the Japan Racing Association (JRA) to pay ¥100 billion into the national treasury over FY2026–FY2029, financing a concentrated push on farm restructuring.
MAFF wanted to spend heavily on restructuring farmland and farm businesses over a short period and needed funding from outside the ordinary budget. The racing authority holds large reserves it could draw on instead.
Confirmed target areas include enlarging and consolidating farmland plots, reorganizing and rationalizing shared-use facilities, deploying smart farm technology, and developing production areas aimed at export.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
This levy funds the farmland consolidation that foreign operators meet through the Regional Plan and Farmland Bank system.
Its effect is indirect: it funds the mechanism operators already use rather than creating a new eligibility route or entry right of its own. The practical value is in timing: a funded, time-limited push to enlarge plots and rebuild facilities means more land moving through the public system, and municipalities actively looking for operators to take it on.
Key dates
|
2026/03/31 |
Act commences on the day of promulgation |
|
2026/09/30 |
Outside date for commencement of the companion JRA Act amendment |
|
2026/03/31 |
JRA pays a confirmed total of ¥100 billion (1,000億円) to the treasury over four years |
Primary sources
New Paddy Field Policy from FY2027
令和9年度からの新たな水田政策 (suiden seisaku)
Policy Status — Under review (direction published mid-2026, rates unsettled)
The new paddy field policy from FY2027 rebuilds how MAFF supports rice paddy land. The current subsidy pays a fixed rate per unit of paddy area, regardless of what a farmer actually harvests or sells. The new policy ties payment to output and to identified demand instead, so a farmer is paid according to what they actually produce and sell, rather than simply how much paddy land they keep in production.
The area-based approach dates to Japan’s decades-long policy of managing rice production down: paying by paddy area, rather than by crop or sale, made it straightforward to shrink the area under rice while still supporting farmers who converted it to other uses. In July 2026, the Staple Food Act amendment (entry 16) removed the law’s production-adjustment provisions and wrote demand-responsive production into their place, reversing the direction the subsidy system was built to serve. An area-based payment no longer matches a law built around demand met rather than acreage reduced.
Reported proposals move support toward measured output and identified demand. Support for processing rice, rice flour and export rice would track output per unit area. Support for business-use rice would carry tougher productivity conditions and be measured against imported rice on price. Proposed conditions include regional benchmark yields, required productivity practices and advance contracts with buyers.
One structural change is already confirmed, not just proposed: the five-year water-flooding requirement currently attached to paddy land will no longer be required from FY2027, letting farmers shift paddy fields into other crops without periodic reflooding to keep their subsidy standing.
How this impacts foreign business and operators
The proposed direction favours farmers who already have a buyer lined up over farmers growing for the open market. Export rice and processing rice both move toward output-based support, and a signed advance contract with a buyer appears among the proposed conditions: a written agreement, made before the crop is planted, that a buyer will purchase the farmer’s future harvest. A foreign buyer who signs that kind of agreement with a Japanese farmer gives the farmer an advantage in qualifying for the new support that open-market production does not offer.
MAFF has published the direction but not the numbers: support rates, regional yield benchmarks and eligibility conditions are all still undecided. Japanese farmers have reportedly raised concerns about the paperwork involved. The figures emerge through the budget process.
One change is already confirmed rather than proposed. Under the current subsidy rules, a paddy field converted to another crop, such as wheat or soybeans, keeps its paddy-linked payments only if the farmer floods it and grows rice at least once every five years. Land that goes the full five years without rice loses those payments permanently, even if flooding resumes later, though the land’s legal registration is unaffected. That five-year clock started with FY2022, meaning fields would have started failing it in FY2027, the exact year the rule is now being scrapped. An operator planning to convert paddy land to another crop from FY2027 no longer needs to maintain periodic flooding to keep the land’s subsidy standing.
Key dates
|
FY2027 |
New framework intended to commence |
|
2026/08/31 |
FY2027 budget request due, first document likely to carry figures |
|
2026/07/10 |
Minister says rates and conditions will follow the budget process |
|
2026/06 |
MAFF publishes the policy direction |