Market Overview

Plagued by various issues of falling birth rate and increasing elderly population being in care, deteriorated stresses and lifestyle diseases caused by corona crisis, and children’s dining habits (eating alone and unbalanced diet), health maintenance or promotions, and extension of healthy longevity have become the major challenges to be sold for the national and local governments, companies, and individuals in Japan. However, there is no saying of any improvements in everyday food and lifestyle habits. Against this backdrop, the importance of nutrition for all generations, from 0 to 100, is being reevaluated.

The large shares for the nutrition market that aims for health maintenance or promotions and extension of healthy longevity are currently occupied by cooked food (meal service) to be used for long-term care food and food for the sick, while the shares for processed food such as nutritional supplementary food and therapeutic meal delivery service have been expanding, against a backdrop of increase in elderly people living at home. In the situation of diversifying lifestyles, emerging markets such as women’s healthcare food, nutritionally complete food, and personalized food have been rapidly growing, earning support by the young generation.

The nutrition market that consists of the following 10 categories; formula milk & baby food, women’s healthcare food, nutritionally complete food, personalized food, oral rehydration therapy, food for the sick (special meal, controlled diet), therapeutic meal delivery service, nutritional supplementary food i.e. food to improve nutrition for elderly (to prevent malnutrition), long-term care food (dysphagia diet and food for those with chewing difficulty), and liquid food, is estimated to have generated 1,713.6 billion yen in FY2022, 102.1% of the size of previous fiscal year.

Note that the nutrition market size is calculated with some categories overlap due to difficulty in clear classifications, as there are some products and services that belong to multiple market categories such as food for the elderly (i.e. food for the sick, therapeutic meal delivery service, nutritional supplementary food for the elderly, long-term care food, and liquid food), and there are some cases of cooked food using processed food, despite some market categories distinguish between cooked food (meal service) and processed food.

Noteworthy Topics

Trends of Frozen Meal Home Delivery Market

Though not included in our therapeutic meal delivery service category, “frozen meal home delivery service” that delivers frozen bento and ready-to-eat food has come into the limelight. This market is attracting diverse businesses with different business forms, comprising many new entries by SMEs among some large-scale companies.

Frozen meal delivery benefits both suppliers and demanders. Delivery services can streamline business operation by freezing the products, reducing their delivery cost. For demanders (users), convenience increases by stockpiling foods through bulk buying, instead of staying home to wait for delivery every day. The market expansion is driven further by the improved impression of frozen food that used to generate negative images, encouraging more people to eat frozen food. In addition, product variety of frozen food has increased for foods for long-term care and special medical purposes.

The frozen meal home delivery service market (based on the sales at businesses) is estimated to have exceeded 30 billion yen in FY2020, which, by 2030, is projected to occupy one fourth of the entire therapeutic meal delivery service market size that totals all home delivery meals from normal temperature, chilled, to frozen.

Future Outlook

In the aging society with decreasing numbers of children, the nutrition market has been driven by long-term care food and food for the sick that are mainly provided in hospitals and facilities for the elderly. In recent years, however, the promotions by the government to reinforce medical care and long-term care at home are expected to expand the demand for therapeutic meal delivery services and nutritional supplementary food, thereby to have meals with necessary nutrition all set at home.

On the other hand, because of diversified lifestyles, young people intend to enjoy products and services that let them do self-care according to health issues for each person, with easy access. This is expected for women’s healthcare food, nutritionally complete food, and personalized food to keep on growing.

The entire nutrition market size (total 10 market categories) is expected to increase to 1,808.9 billion yen by FY2025 and to 1,989.5 billion yen by FY2030.

Research Outline