Shiro Tsukasa comments

of course when it comes to many food products, Japan is nowhere near self sufficient. But can someone shows us the exact figure or proof that Japan is "not" nearly self sufficient when it comes to rice? this article by a similar site japantimes.co.jp for example, says that Japan is self sufficient in rice, other sources says likewise...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/02/26/reference/japan-needs-imports-to-keep-itself-fed/

http://ricepedia.org/japan

The reason why Japan is importing rice, for one, because it is cheaper to import. the quote from a source that I'd like to cite : " By the mid-1980s, Japan abandoned the goal of food self-sufficiency. Other countries could produce these goods more cheaply, and Japan could import them at less cost than it could produce them. Since the 1980s the overall trend has been toward decreasing food self-sufficiency."

http://www.crosscurrents.hawaii.edu/content.aspx?lang=eng&site=japan&theme=work&subtheme=AGRIC&unit=JWORK111

And the solution to fill the requirements of Japan's food self-sufficiency that the government are working on, for example can be found in this article :

http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id030007.html

here is one answer from a J-musician perspective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqgVKd2ddnM

here's one answer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikata_ga_nai