In December 2024, local governments issued a series of resolutions requesting the national government introduce labeling for genome-edited foods. These were Ohnan Town Council in Shimane Prefecture, Nagato City Council in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Mitaka City Council in Tokyo, and Zama City Council in Kanagawa Prefecture. As a result, local governments passing resolutions increased to four prefectural assemblies (Gifu, Nara, Shizuoka, and Hyogo) and 16 municipal (city and town) assemblies.

Food labeling of genome-edited foods was not considered right from the beginning. This is because the labeling system for genetically modified foods came about through the consumer movement, and although it was extremely inadequate, the outcome was that the legal regulations that form the base of this system prevented the spread of genetically modified foods worldwide, including in Japan. Learning from this, seed and pesticide companies along with governments around the world have developed a policy of not regulating genome-edited foods. Japan thus adopted a policy of not requiring labeling for genome-edited food.

The pressure on local governments to pass resolutions calling for the national government to introduce labeling for genome-edited foods began with the efforts against genome-edited tomatoes. In response to Sanatech Seed's move to provide genome-edited tomato seedlings free of charge to elementary schools and welfare facilities such as those for the elderly, residents throughout the country began a campaign to urge local governments not to accept the genome-edited tomato seedlings. As a result, local governments responding that they would not accept them appeared one after another, and in the end, none of them accepted the seedlings. This approach toward local governments has led to a widening movement to request local councils to pass written opinions urging the national government to introduce labeling for genome-edited foods.

Last year, Singapore became the first country to sell cultured meat at retail stores. Produced and sold by GOOD Meat, the cultured meat division of Eat Just, the meat is called GOOD Meat 3. One of the characteristics of this cultured meat is that it contains only three percent of cultured chicken meat. It is likely that hybrid meat, cultured meat combined with such material as algae and plant-based meat, will become the mainstream of cultured meat. The Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) is currently developing hybrid meat in which fish fat cells are cultured and combined with other animal fat cells and plant-based proteins.
(Nikkei Biotech Online Edition 2024/12/20 and others.)

A team at Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Military Medical University in Shaanxi Province in northwest China has transplanted a pig liver, genetically modified using genome-editing, to a brain-dead patient. This is the first transplantation of a genome-edited pig organ to humans outside the United States. The pig organ used in the transplant was developed by Chengdu Sino-Clone Organ Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Sichuan Province. The liver was taken from a 13-month-old pig in which six genes had been destroyed. The company had previously conducted preliminary experiments to confirm the safety of pig liver transplants to monkeys and pig kidneys to humans. The patient suffered brain death after a stroke, and the transplantation operation lasted more than ten hours. The operation was performed by replacing the patient's original liver with the genome-edited pig liver.
(CGTN Japanese 2025/1/17)

As xenotransplantation advances in the United States and China, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is also strengthening its moves toward the approval of xenotransplantation. On January 17, 2025, MHLW issued a document entitled Implementation of Xenotransplantation under the Law Concerning the Securing of the Safety of Regenerative Medicine, etc. to prefectural health departments, while simultaneously informing them of the revision of the Guidelines for the Risk Management of Xenograft-Derived Infections Associated with the Implementation of Xenotransplantation. The document was issued because it is expected that there will also be cases in Japan in which xenotransplantation will reach the stage of clinical research.