Food industry - food industry

Japanese: 食品工業 - しょくひんこうぎょう

A sector of industry that uses agricultural, livestock, and marine products as raw materials and processes them to manufacture processed foods.

Industrial Characteristics

It belongs to the consumer goods production sector and light industry, but compared to other industries, total demand is relatively fixed and there is a certain limit to processing, so both raw materials and products are prone to spoilage and deterioration, and care must be taken with storage, transportation, and packaging. On the other hand, it also has the advantage of stable demand and fast product distribution turnover. In the early stages of capitalist development, the production of consumer goods generally increases first, followed by the production of capital goods, and the development of light industry, including the food industry, precedes the development of heavy chemical industry. However, the food industry has a unique character among light industries, and tends to be greatly regulated by the natural attributes of agricultural, livestock, and marine products, and there are many points that do not match the characteristics and development of modern factory-based industries. With the changes and sophistication of dietary habits accompanying urbanization, the food industry plays a large role in inducing the growth of production of livestock products, fruits, vegetables, etc. The food industry overcomes the discontinuity of agricultural production, makes it possible to supply food throughout the year, and increases the added value of agricultural products. On the other hand, however, the profits from the food industry are absorbed by the corporations rather than passed on to agricultural producers, which is one of the factors that leads to uneven development between the food industry and the agricultural production sector that is responsible for producing raw materials, and gives rise to various problems.

Globally, the United States has the most advanced food industry, followed by European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Among them, the United States is on a much larger scale than Japan, and can be said to be technologically superior. Processing and production technology saw the development of freezing factories around 1910, rapid freezing industrialization in the late 1920s, and low-temperature "locker plants" (a type of warehouse) after World War II, leading to the creation of the cold chain of freezing factories → locker plants → home freezers. Technologies for the dehydration industry and freeze-drying were also developed in the United States.

[Masaru Hoshi and Yoshiaki Kase]

Japan's Food Industry

Historical developments

Japan's food industry started out as small-scale subsistence production, and flour milling, sugar refining, and brewing have become modern large-scale industries through the application of industrial chemistry, agricultural chemistry, microbiology, genetic engineering, and biotechnology, but in general many products are "handmade," and for this reason many industries still take on a primitive industrial form. Modern commercialization began in the mid-Meiji period, but sugar refining, flour milling, oil refining, beer, confectionery, and dairy processing developed through the import of plants and technology from abroad. In contrast, the brewing industry, which produces soy sauce and sake, has been expanding on a large scale through its own efforts, as an extension of the indigenous industries that developed in the Edo period. The sugar industry made a great leap forward with the occupation of Taiwan after the Sino-Japanese War, and the mainland sugar industry declined, leaving only brown sugar in southern Kyushu and Okinawa. From the early Showa period, marine products from the deep seas and the North Seas were processed, and canned crab from Russian Primorsky Krai and the North Seas gained a reputation as the best in the world. Taiwanese canned pineapple was one of the world's three major suppliers, forming the foundation of today's Japanese canning industry. Umami seasonings also appeared.

After the Second World War, many small and medium-sized enterprises were born. Among the traditional large food manufacturers, Ajinomoto Co., Ltd. started producing DDT, Meiji Seika Kaisha and Sugar Co., Ltd. started producing pharmaceuticals such as penicillin and streptomycin, and Nippon Suisan Co., Ltd. started to enter deep-sea fishing, and other companies started to make inroads into the fishing industry. In addition, alternative industries such as instant noodles instead of soba and udon noodles, amino acid soy sauce instead of soy sauce, artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, and synthetic sake, shochu, and miscellaneous alcohol began to make inroads. Furthermore, after the period of high economic growth, as eating habits became more stable and diversified, the gap between growth and stagnation spread not only between industries but also between companies. In the meat and bread industries, some companies rose from mid-level to large companies, while in the sake brewing industry, the positions of sake and beer were greatly reversed, and in recent years, the consumption of shochu has also increased dramatically. In the sake industry, due to the excessive number of companies and the small size of the industry, small and medium-sized companies are further forming affiliations with large barrel buyers. Major manufacturers have also been making progress with the use of various types of mechanization in an effort to streamline operations, speed up production and improve quality, and various chemical treatments have been developed. On the other hand, however, these efforts have also given rise to food pollution problems, including the use of artificial coloring in common foods.

[Masaru Hoshi and Yoshiaki Kase]

Changes since the Showa Period

The total value of shipments from the food industry increased 14-fold, from 2.4 trillion yen to 32.5 trillion yen, between 1961 and 1995, but the total value of agricultural output from the raw material supply sector only increased 4.9-fold, from 2.4 trillion yen to 11.8 trillion yen, during the same period, making the remarkable development of the food industry noteworthy. Among these, the largest increases in production in recent years, over the 21-year period from 1975 to 1996, were in frozen prepared foods (fried foods such as croquettes and fried shrimp, and non-fried foods such as rice dishes, hamburger steaks and meatballs), which increased 4.8-fold, retort foods, mainly curry, which increased 4.4-fold, ham and sausages, and dressings (mayonnaise, etc.), which increased 2.3-fold, and other products such as various prepared foods, bento boxes and sushi, which also showed remarkable growth.

During this period of development in the food processing industry, production has become concentrated and market oligopoly has developed in major food industries such as wheat flour milling, drinking milk, butter manufacturing, ham and sausage, soybean oil, beer, and whiskey. Subcontracting has also progressed, with the larger the food industry, the higher the dependency on subcontractors. There are also strong ties with banks, which provide a financial function, and with general trading companies, which provide an organizing function. For example, Nisshin Flour Milling supplies flour to Yamazaki Bread, a leading bread manufacturer, and Mitsubishi Shoji, Marubeni, and Sumitomo Corporation act as intermediaries, and have close ties with Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. In recent years, with the expansion of imports of wheat, soybeans, feed grains, and other crops, five food industrial parks have been formed around the Pacific coastal belt in Chiba, Keiyo, Kinuura (Aichi Prefecture), Kobe, and Hakozaki (Fukuoka City), with related companies linking up with each other to manufacture products within the parks, aiming to reduce the cost of transporting raw materials. Also, meat processing manufacturers such as Nippon Ham have promoted the integration of production, processing, processing, and distribution.

As processed foods continued to develop markets in this way, according to the Household Survey conducted by the Management and Coordination Agency (since 2001, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), the proportion of processed foods in the nation's food consumption expenditures, excluding eating out, reached approximately 48% in real terms in 1965, approximately 53% in 1975, approximately 55% in 1985, and further approximately 61% by 1996. Furthermore, from the second half of the 1980s onwards, with the yen rising sharply following the Plaza Accord of 1985, food processing companies began to expand overseas, primarily into North America (mainly the United States) and Asia (mainly China).

[Masaru Hoshi and Yoshiaki Kase]

"Japan's Food Problems Vol. 1" edited by the Japanese Scientists' Association (1978, Otsuki Shoten)" ▽ "The History of the Japanese Food Industry" by Aishi Sasama (1979, Toyo Keizai Shinposha)" ▽ "Considering Food - The Economics of Production, Distribution, and Consumption" edited by Tsutomu Umekawa et al. (1982, Fumin Kyokai)" ▽ "Illustrated Guide to Japan's Food Industry" edited by Takao Morimi et al. (1995, Korin)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

農・畜・水産物を原料として、それを処理加工して加工食品を製造することを目的とする工業の一部門。

産業上の特質

消費財生産部門に属し、軽工業に属するが、他工業に比して、総需要量は相対的に固定的であり、加工に一定の限度もあるため、原料、製品とも腐敗、変質しやすく、貯蔵、輸送、包装などに注意しなければならないが、逆に需要の安定、製品の流通回転の速さといった利点もある。資本主義発展の初期にあっては、一般にまず消費財の生産が増加し、ついで生産財生産が増大するのが普通であり、食品工業を含めた軽工業の発展が重化学工業の発展に先だっている。しかし、食品工業は軽工業のなかでも特殊な性格をもち、農・畜・水産物などの自然的属性に大きく規制される傾向が強く、近代的な工場制工業の特質や発展と一致しない点が多い。都市化に伴う食生活内容の変化、高度化のもとにあって、畜産物、果実、野菜類などの生産の伸びを誘発するのに食品工業の果たしている役割は大きい。食品工業は農業生産の不連続性を克服して、年間を通じ供給可能の状態に置き、農産物の付加価値を増大させる。しかし反面、食品工業の利潤は、農業生産者へではなく、企業体側が吸収することになり、原料生産を担当している農業生産部門との間に不均等発展をもたらす一因をつくり、さまざまな問題を引き起こすことになる。

　世界的にみると食品工業がもっとも進んでいるのはアメリカで、ついでイギリス、ドイツ、スイス、オランダなどのヨーロッパ諸国である。なかでもアメリカは、日本に比してスケールが桁(けた)違いに大きく、技術的にも上位にあるといえる。加工生産技術は、1910年ごろから冷凍工場化、1920年代後半に急速冷凍工業化、第二次世界大戦後になって低温の「ロッカープラント」（倉庫の一種）が生まれ、冷凍工場→ロッカープラント→ホームフリーザーのコールド・チェーンが生まれた。また脱水工業、凍結乾燥の技術も生まれている。

［保志　恂・加瀬良明］

日本の食品工業

歴史的展開

日本の食品工業は、ほとんど生業的な小規模生産から出発し、製粉、製糖、醸造などは、工業化学、農芸化学や微生物学さらには、遺伝子工学・バイオテクノロジーなどの応用によって近代的大工業化が進んでいるが、全般的に「手づくり」の製品が多く、このためなお原始的産業の形態をとっているものも少なくない。近代的な企業化は明治中期から始まったが、製糖、製粉、製油、ビール、製菓、乳加工などは外国からのプラントと技術の輸入で発展した。これに対し、しょうゆ、清酒などの醸造業は、江戸時代に発達した在来産業の延長線上に独自の努力で大規模化が進められてきた。製糖業は、日清(にっしん)戦争後の台湾領有により飛躍的に発展し、内地糖業は南九州や沖縄の黒糖を残して衰滅した。昭和初期から遠洋、北洋の水産物が加工され、ロシア沿海州および北洋のカニ缶詰は世界一の声価を得、また台湾パイナップル缶詰は世界の三大供給地の一つとして今日の日本缶詰業の基礎をなした。うま味調味料も登場した。

　第二次世界大戦後には多くの中小企業が生まれたが、従来の大手食品メーカーでは、味の素(もと)がDDT、明治製菓や製糖会社がペニシリン、ストレプトマイシンなどの薬品製造、日本水産などが遠洋漁業への進出などにより復興の足掛りを得たほか、代替産業、たとえば、そば・うどんに対するインスタント麺(めん)、しょうゆに対するアミノ酸しょうゆ、砂糖に対する人工甘味料、酒類では合成清酒、焼酎(しょうちゅう)、雑酒の進出が目だち始めた。さらに高度経済成長期以降は、食生活の安定・多様化とその変化に伴い、成長と停滞の格差が産業間だけでなく企業間にも及んだ。食肉業、製パン業では中堅から大手へのし上がるものも出る一方、酒造業では清酒とビールの位置が大きく逆転し、また近年焼酎の消費の伸びも目覚ましく、清酒業界では企業過多と規模の零細性のなかで大手桶(おけ)買い業者のもとに中小業者は系列化をいっそう進めている。大手メーカーを中心に各種機械化も進み、作業一貫化、スピード化と品質向上を図り、各種の化学的処理などが発展しているが、それらは反面、これまでに一般食品の人工着色を含めて食品公害問題をも発生させている。

［保志　恂・加瀬良明］

昭和以降の変化

食品工業の総出荷額は、1961年（昭和36）から1995年（平成7）の間に2.4兆円から32.5兆円へと14倍増しているが、原料供給部門の農業総産出額がこの間に2.4兆円から11.8兆円へ4.9倍増にとどまっていることからみて、食品工業の著しい発展が注目される。なかでも近年、生産高の伸びの大きいものは、1975～1996年の21年間に、冷凍調理食品（コロッケ、エビフライなどのフライ類と米飯類、ハンバーグ、ミートボールなどの非フライ類）4.8倍、カレーを中心としたレトルト食品4.4倍、ハム・ソーセージ2.4倍、ドレッシング類（マヨネーズなど）2.3倍などであり、ほかにも各種総菜、弁当、すし類なども著しい伸びを示した。

　このような食品加工業の発展期に、小麦製粉、飲用牛乳、バター製造、ハム・ソーセージ、大豆油、ビール、ウイスキーなどの主要食品工業で生産の集中、市場寡占状態が進んでいる。さらに下請化が進み、規模の大きい食品工業ほど下請依存率が高い。また、金融機能としての銀行やオルガナイズ機能としての総合商社との結び付きも強い。たとえば、パン業界トップ級の山崎製パンには日清製粉が小麦粉を供給しているが、その仲介の役割を果たしているのが、三菱(みつびし)商事、丸紅、住友商事であり、三菱UFJ銀行や三井住友銀行と密接な関係をもっている。近年では、麦類、大豆、飼料穀物などの輸入の拡大により、太平洋沿岸ベルト地帯を中心に「食品コンビナート」が千葉、京葉、衣浦(きぬうら)（愛知県）、神戸、箱崎（福岡市）の五つの食品工業団地として形成され、関連企業が相互に結合して団地内で製品化をし、原料輸送のコストを低減することを目ざしている。また、日本ハムなどの食肉加工メーカーは、生産、処理、加工、流通のインテグレーション（統合）を進めた。

　このように、加工食品による市場開拓が進むなかで、総務庁（2001年から総務省）「家計調査」によると、国民の食生活は、外食を除く食料消費支出のなかで加工食品の占める割合が、実質値で1965年には約48％、1975年には約53％、1985年には約55％、さらに1996年には約61％にも達するようになった。なお、1980年代の後半以降、1985年のプラザ合意による著しい円高のもとで、食品加工企業の海外進出が北米（アメリカ中心）とアジア（中国中心）をおもな対象地にして進行した。

［保志　恂・加瀬良明］

『日本科学者会議編『日本の食糧問題　上』（1978・大月書店）』▽『笹間愛史著『日本食品工業史』（1979・東洋経済新報社）』▽『梅川勉他編著『食料を考える――生産と流通・消費の経済学』（1982・富民協会）』▽『森実孝郎他編『図説・日本の食品工業』（1995・光琳）』

[参照項目] | 軽工業 | コールド・チェーン | 醸造業 | 製糖業 | 冷凍食品 | レトルト食品

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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