Rikako Watai: Law and Food Security in the Context of National Security

In Japan, laws and judicial precedents have never provided a clear definition of national security. In the United States, an example can be found in a 1971 Supreme Court ruling where Justice Black stated that "security is a broad, vague generality."

This case is the famous Pentagon Papers case, which was also made into a movie. It involved the federal government seeking an injunction against newspapers to prevent the publication of secret documents regarding the Vietnam War prepared by the Department of Defense, citing national security reasons.

National security used to be discussed in a military context, as in the Pentagon Papers case. However, the concept of security has gradually expanded its scope. For example, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, introduced the concept of human security in its 1994 Human Development Report.

The concept of human security includes food security, which the report defined as ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food. In Japan, Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the "Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Act" enacted in 1999 also stipulates that a stable supply of high-quality food must be provided at reasonable prices.

Traditionally, discussions regarding food safety focused primarily on measures against contaminants in food. In this sense, "safety" is the term used. However, food security encourages examination from the perspective of "security" rather than just "safety." It can be said that food safety has moved beyond just quality safety to become a matter of national security.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2021 remained at 38% on a calorie basis and a record low of 63% on a production value basis. The Japanese government has set a goal to increase these figures to 45% on a calorie basis and 75% on a production value basis by 2030. To achieve this, given the prolonged situation in Ukraine, the key will be how to strengthen food supply chains.

A supply chain refers to the series of supply networks from raw materials becoming products to reaching consumers. With economic globalization, supply chains now include countries with socio-economic systems different from Japan's. While this situation poses a risk to the supply chain, it must be said that completely cutting off (decoupling) non-allied countries from the supply chain is difficult. Therefore, how to ensure food security, including the promotion of domestic agriculture, is a crucial challenge today.

Japan formulated its first National Security Strategy in December 2013, establishing basic policies for foreign and defense policy regarding security. Recently, policies regarding economic security are being developed to secure Japan's interests from an economic perspective. The revision of the National Security Strategy scheduled for the end of this year is also expected to include mentions of economic security.

Recent laws from a security standpoint include the "Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Border Islands" (Important Land Use Restriction Act) established in June 2021, followed by the "Economic Security Promotion Act" passed in May of this year. However, neither of these addressed the issue of food.

The Important Land Use Restriction Act contains provisions for investigating the usage status of designated areas around facilities important for national security and on remote islands near national borders. Regarding food security, the usage of farmland and water sources is an issue, but it is not covered under the current status. The Economic Security Promotion Act introduces measures to strengthen supply chain resilience and envisions semiconductors and pharmaceuticals as target materials, but makes no mention of food.

The supplementary provisions of the Important Land Use Restriction Act state that the implementation status will be reviewed after five years, and the Economic Security Promotion Act after three years, with necessary measures to be taken based on the results. Given that food is closely related to the lives of the citizens, it seems necessary to take a multi-faceted approach from a legal system perspective as well, rather than just improving the food self-sufficiency rate. Japan's response to food security is likely to begin in earnest from now on.

If we compare national security to a computer, it can be described as an essential foundation, much like an operating system. To make that foundation solid, it is vital to further promote cooperation between the public and private sectors and to share a sense of security (sense) and a vision of security (vision) across society as a whole.