Market Overview

Modern Japan is facing an aging population with more people needing care, younger people suffering from lifestyle diseases, and workers experiencing heavier stress, causing them to have imbalanced diets. This results in the country addressing the issues of health maintenance and promotion, as well as extending healthy life expectancy at the national, municipal, corporate, and individual levels. However, there has been little improvement in lifestyles, especially diets. In such situations, the importance of nutrition for all ages, from 0 to 100, has been reevaluated.

This research focuses on the following nine categories that aim to maintain and promote health, as well as extend healthy life expectancy: infant formula and baby food, nutritionally complete food, personalized food, oral rehydration therapy, food for the sick (cooked or processed), therapeutic meal delivery services, nutritional supplements for the elderly (to prevent malnutrition), long-term care food (including dysphagia diets and food for those with chewing difficulty), and liquid food. The nutritional food market consisting of these categories is estimated at 1,129.7 billion yen in FY2023, which is a 4.3% increase from the previous fiscal year.
Specifically, food for the sick, primarily in the form of cooked hospital meals, currently occupies a large market share. Therapeutic meal delivery services and nutritional supplements for the elderly, the latter of which is increasingly used as snacks, are increasing their market shares as more elderly people live at home. Emerging categories, such as nutritionally complete food and personalized food, are also growing, due to diversifying lifestyles.
Please note that the nutritional food market size is calculated with some category overlap due to the difficulty of clear classification among categories. Some products and services belong to multiple market categories, particularly those for the elderly (food for the sick, therapeutic meal delivery services, 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

The Personalized Food Market

The personalized food market is a new market that was launched in the late 2010s. Market players are primarily startups that offer baby food (food for weaning), articles of taste (coffee, confectionery, etc.), and health-promoting food, mostly in the form of subscriptions.
The offering of optimal food (products) according to each person’s taste, feelings, and health status attracts young people who have interest in new technologies and intentions to social contributions, as well as households with double income or children to raise. In the future, the market expects to attract more users interested in food for the elderly.

*What is the personalized food market?
Personalized food is a service that recommends and offers food and beverages optimal for each customer according to their taste, preferences, lifestyle, physical constitution, allergies, health status, and diet or body toning goals.
The personalized food market in this research basically focuses on prepared or processed food that can be eaten (or drunk) as is, including food that requires simple operation such as heating or adding water. Note that the market does not include uncooked fresh foods or ingredients that require cooking or processing, health food (supplements), or pet food.

Future Outlook

As the government encourages the elderly to receive their medical treatment and long-term care at home, demand for meal delivery services and nutritional supplements for the elderly are likely to increase, since these services and products help the elderly to have nutritionally well-balanced diets at home.
Meanwhile, due to diversifying lifestyles, young people and working-age adults tend to choose products and services that address their specific health needs. Therefore, continuous growth is expected in nutritionally complete food and personalized food categories.
The total nutritional food market is projected to reach 1,192.4 billion yen in FY2025, and 1,335.7 billion yen by FY2030.

Research Outline