Spider silk — five times stronger than steel by weight — is finally becoming a mass-produced reality. U.S.-based Kraig Biocraft targets 10 tons per month while Japan's Spiber partners with 45+ brands. Explore Super Silk's potential in fashion, medicine, and defense, and how this bio-revolution is unfolding.
Agro Ludens started mass-producing CoMeat, a rice-derived mycoprotein made with koji fermentation, at its Nasu plant in Tochigi in April 2026. It uses processing-grade rice, not table rice, and Japan's agriculture ministry approved mycoprotein as a new-market rice use in March. Plus: Japan's swing from rice shortage to rice glut, Beyond Meat down 99%, and why JR East is now farming.
A Japanese research team has developed OrthologTransformer, a generative AI that treats DNA like a language and redesigns genes to work better in new organisms. The result? Plastic-eating bacteria that are up to 10x more effective. Published in Nature Communications, this breakthrough could reshape how we fight plastic pollution worldwide.
Japan's largest seafood company Maruha Nichiro has partnered with Singapore's UMAMI Bioworks to develop cell-cultivated bluefin tuna using cells from fully farmed fish. Targeting overseas sales by FY2027, this report covers the technical breakthroughs, commercialization challenges, and global cultivated meat market landscape behind Japan's ambitious quest to produce fish without the ocean.
As cocoa prices hit record highs, Japan embraces innovative alternatives — from sunflower seed "chocolate" to soy meat. Discover how rising food costs are reshaping Japanese food culture, driving innovation, and changing consumer habits just in time for Valentine's Day.
Mizuno and Kaneka's co-developed biodegradable artificial turf "Re Green Grass 9" has been installed at Vantelin Dome Nagoya — a world first for professional sports facilities. Using Kaneka's "Green Planet" biopolymer that decomposes even in seawater, this innovation tackles the growing microplastics crisis in sports infrastructure.
Kindai University has achieved the world's first full-cycle aquaculture of Nodoguro (Blackthroat seaperch), a high-end deep-sea fish known as the "White Toro." Learn about the decade-long journey, the technical challenges overcome, and what Japan's aquaculture leadership means for global food security.
Singapore startup Flint begins mass production of biodegradable paper batteries. Made from cellulose, decomposing in 6 weeks, with no lithium or cobalt. Pilot programs with Logitech and Amazon underway, AA/AAA formats expected in 2026. Could this be the solution to battery waste?
Farmed eels almost always turn out male. Aichi Prefecture's patented soybean-isoflavone feed flips more than 90% of them female, letting farmers raise them to roughly double the usual size without the flesh going tough. The result is "Enman," a branded eel from Mikawa-Isshiki.
Two decades after Shinya Yamanaka's 2006 paper, Japan approved the world's first iPS-derived regenerative medicine products on March 6, 2026: Amchepry for Parkinson's disease and RiHEART for severe heart failure. The trial data, the seven-year clock, and the 55 million yen price.
At Toyosu Market's 2026 New Year auction, a purple sea urchin from Hakodate sold for a record 35 million yen, about 87,500 yen per gram, five times the previous year's top lot. The million-yen uni bowl, a 23-fold rise in two years, and why uni keeps getting pricier.