The MAFF independent administrative body the Food and Agricultural Materials Inspection Center (FAMIC) has for the first time published a list of the feed additives that have been approved. These include the advanced refined product L-threonine (Ajinomoto) on January 26, a self-cloning L-tryptofan (Ajinomoto)and riboflavin (BASF Japan) on February 22. Thus far, additives had not been disclosed to the public.

The independent administrative body the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) has developed a method for direct introduction of genes into the seed embryo of rice using the geminivirus vector. Since it has been thus far impossible to insert genes directly into the seed, they have been introduced to cells taken from the leaf and so on. NIAS is proceeding with the R&D for this technology for the direct introduction of genes into the seed using this virus vector for the purposes of adapting it to genome editing and epigenome editing technologies.

Details of the potato development using epigenome editing that is being attempted by a research team under Atsushi Kasai at the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science at Hirosaki University see BJ February 2016 have become apparent. A plant is produced in which the expression of the promoter of the gene for initiation of the target gene is suppressed, this then being grafted to suppress the gene. It is reported that among the goals of this is to lower the concentration of the carcinogen acrylamide, which is formed when the potato is heated. Since due to this technology the potato itself is not a GMO there is a strong possibility that it will be exempt from assessment under the GM crop regulatory laws such as the Cartagena Law and the Food Sanitation Act.