On June 24, a joint meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy and the Council for Japan's Growth Strategy was held at the prime minister's official residence, at which a public-private roadmap and investment amounts for the growth strategy pursued by the Takaichi administration were presented. The government and private sector intend to invest more than 370 trillion yen by 2040 in the 17 strategic fields and 62 major product technologies outlined in the growth strategy. In particular, the AI and semiconductor sector is set to receive the unbelievable investment total of 101.6 trillion yen, followed by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical-related sector with a total investment of 44.2 trillion yen. The conspicuously large investments in these two sectors indicate that AI/semiconductors and biotechnology are the pillars of the growth strategy.

In addition, the food technology sector is to receive 9.7 trillion yen, with 4.6 trillion yen invested in plant factories, 2.9 trillion yen in land-based aquaculture, 1.2 trillion yen in food machinery, and 1 trillion yen in novel food products, indicating a large investment in plant factories. The pillars of the investment in plant factories are cultivation using AI technology and the development of plant varieties to match the technology, with a view not only to expansion in Japan but also to overseas markets. The development of crops for plant factories will be pursued by developing new varieties using gene editing and other genetic engineering technologies. Land-based aquaculture also is not intended only for Japan but also has expansion into overseas markets in view. This also includes the development of genome-edited fish, AI-driven aquaculture technology, as well as algae and fermentation technology. As for novel food products, cell-cultured meat is not included; the development of non-animal-derived proteins, functional foods, and health foods are the main pillars.

While the Takaichi administration has announced the investment amounts in its public-private investment roadmap, it has not indicated how much the government investment will be. In the near future, the government will announce a regional industrial cluster plan led by prefectural governments, for which this investment will be the departure point.

On July 15, Sanatech Life Sciences submitted notifications for two new genome-edited tomato varieties. In both cases, in addition to the previous high GABA content, the carotenoid biosynthesis has been altered to increase the lycopene content. As a result, genome-edited foods for which notifications have been submitted in Japan are tomato with high GABA content (three products), with high sugar content, and with high GABA and high lycopene content (two products). Among fish, notifications have been submitted for fleshy red sea bream (two products), fleshy tilapia, fat tiger pufferfish (two products), and fat flounder (two products). Among crops grown overseas, glutinous corn; baby chat potatoes that grow in large numbers, and reduced browning bananas are being cultivated.