More and more people are moving away from wet rice cultivation in rice paddies. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is taking advantage of the 2025 rice scandal to promote large-scale rice cultivation in dry paddies and rice cultivation in plant factories, rather than support farmers. Both are aimed at industrial rice cultivation by companies rather than farmers. The most commonly seen form of dry rice cultivation is the direct seeding of dry paddies. No-till means literally no tillage, where rice seeds are sown directly in dry paddies.

Matsuya Foods, the operator of the chain of Matsuya gyudon (beef and rice) restaurants, announced on July 17, 2025 that it is teaming up with venture companies NEWGREEN Inc. and Fuyo General Lease Co., Ltd. to sow seeds directly in dry paddies to grow rice without irrigation. In doing so, biostimulants will be used. On May 30, the MAFF drew up guidelines for labeling biostimulants, publishing them under the name of the Consumer Safety Bureau. Biostimulants are materials that support the functions of soil, are expected to be a field in which biotechnology application move forward. At a business strategy briefing held on September 25, agrochemical manufacturer Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. announced that it would be focusing on biostimulants, and development competition is likely to advance in this field.

NEWGREEN is developing a self-propelled robot called "Aigamo-robo" to control weeds in rice paddies; a demonstration test will be held in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture.

In September, the MAFF convened a consortium to cultivate rice that does not require transplanting, and the mass media is also touting the dry field direct-sowing method. The biggest drawback of sowing seeds in dry fields rather than transplanting seedlings in wet paddies is the problems that arise from continuous cropping. Conventional transplanting in paddies does not result in continuous cropping problems. This is why rice has been cultivated for more than 1000 years. How can the problem of not being able to harvest rice every year be overcome? The MAFF recommends the growing of three crops every two years. First, rice is sown, then wheat is sown after the rice harvest, and finally soybeans are grown after the wheat harvest the following spring. Rice, wheat, and soybeans are grown sequentially every two years.

In the early 2000s, a large-scale attempt to introduce direct seeding of no-till dry paddy fields gained some attention. This method was used to test genetically modified rice developed by the US Monsanto (now Bayer AG). This herbicide-resistant rice, Roundup Ready (RR) Rice, was developed to impart resistance to the herbicide Roundup (of which the main ingredient is glyphosate) so it would not be affected by application of Roundup. The development was firstly carried out on California rice (indica rice). However, to sell the rice on Asian markets, it was decided to collaborate with the Aichi Prefectural Agricultural Research Center in Japan.

The reason for collaborating with Aichi Prefecture was that the herbicide Roundup decomposes quickly in water, making it ineffective. In other words, it was useless in paddy fields. But if it could not be used in paddy fields, it would not be possible to market the RR rice in Asian markets. What attracted attention was the Aichi method. This was because Roundup can be used in the Aichi method, which uses direct seeding in no-till dry paddy fields, i.e. without water. The test cultivar sown in Aichi was a Japonica rice variety known as Matsuribare.

An opposition movement to this field test, centering on consumers, spread and a signature campaign collected around 580,000 individual signatures, which were submitted to the governor of Aichi Prefecture and the Aichi Prefectural Agricultural Research Center. On December 12, 2002, Aichi Prefecture officially ended the joint research with Monsanto, bringing to an end the development of herbicide-resistant rice using Monsanto's Matsuribare.

However, this method is once again attracting attention. The Japanese government is now consolidating land into large-scale fields and introducing automated methods making extensive use of drones, robots, and AI. Companies, not farmers, are entrusted with the management of the fields, where the direct seeding of no-till dry paddy fields is being promoted. It can be said that the time has finally come when herbicide-resistant rice is introduced.

On September 8, Sanatech Life Sciences (formerly Sanatech Seed) submitted a notification for a new genome-edited tomato, a high-GABA yellow tomato. As done previously, the gene related to glutamic acid was knocked out to increase GABA. Being yellow, the tomato is thought to be a cherry tomato. As a result, the company has now submitted notifications for three types of tomatoes, a cherry tomato, a medium-size tomato, and now this new tomato. Notifications for nine genome-edited foods have now been submitted in Japan. According to a survey conducted by the citizens' group OK Seed Project, the production areas listed for the foods with functional claims were initially limited to Kumamoto Prefecture, but Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba, and Nagano Prefectures were added by a notification in October 2023, Akita Prefecture was then added in June 2024, and Yamanashi, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Miyazaki Prefectures were added in July 2025.

He Jianxing and his research team at the First Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University in China have transplanted the lung of a genome-edited pig into a human. The team transplanted the left lung of an indigenous Guangxi Bamaxiang pig into a brain-dead patient. Six genes were genome-edited to prevent rejection. The patient remined alive for nine days, during which time there was no hyperacute rejection, the most worrisome aspect of xenotransplantation. Up to now, xenotransplantation had been limited to kidneys, hearts and livers, and this was the first time a lung had been transplanted. The study was ended after nine days at the request of the family.
(Japanese language edition of the People's Daily Online, 2025/8/26)