vol. 21: What’s Next for the Future of Food in Japan? Insights from a Leading Food Tech Expert (Part 1)
SKS (Smart Kitchen Summit) JAPAN is one of the country’s largest global food tech conferences.
Founded in Seattle, SKS fosters cross-industry dialogue centered on the intersection of food, technology, and science.
Hirotaka Tanaka, CEO of UnlocX—who is featured here—was inspired after witnessing the event in Seattle and subsequently brought it to Japan.
This event helped popularize “food tech” in Japan and prompted “&mog” to focus its efforts on supporting food startups.
Ahead of this year’s SKS JAPAN in November, Nobutaka Yoshida, who oversees “&mog by Mitsui Fudosan,” spoke with Mr. Tanaka about the future of the food tech sector.
Japan’s current situation represents a crossroads between prosperity and decline.
The “SKS JAPAN 2026 Global Food Tech Summit,” to be held at COREDO Muromachi in Nihonbashi from November 5 to 7 of this year (with an invitation-only pre-event on the 4th), aims to foster the creation of new food-related industries by bringing together key figures from a wide range of sectors—including food manufacturing, distribution, retail, real estate, finance, government, academia, and investment—from both Japan and abroad for discussion.
After being struck by the excitement of SKS in Seattle in 2016, Mr. Tanaka dedicated himself to bringing the event to Japan. Now, as the event marks its ninth edition, he describes the current state of food tech as being at a “crossroads between prosperity and decline.” Furthermore, the official SKS JAPAN website states in its message regarding the event that “Japan’s food innovation has entered its second stage.” What does this signify?
Mr. Hirotaka Tanaka (hereinafter “Tanaka”):
“When SKS JAPAN was first held in 2017, the term ‘food tech’ itself was virtually unknown. Subsequently, awareness gradually spread—including within the R&D divisions of major food manufacturers—and startups began to emerge. In 2020, I co-authored the book *Food Tech Revolution: The Evolution and Redefinition of ‘Food’—A New 700-Trillion-Yen Global Industry* (published by Nikkei BP); this sparked interest among the executive leadership of major corporations, leading them to take the stage at SKS JAPAN. That was the period when the term ‘food tech’ truly permeated the business world.”
The book highlights the industrial potential arising from the intersection of food and technology, introducing topics such as alternative protein development and “hyper-personalized nutrition” (defined by the editors as diets optimized at the individual level based on analyses like genetic testing and gut microbiome profiling). Its publication made a significant impact on readers by revealing the emergence of a world vastly different from the traditional food landscape.
Tanaka: “Investment in food tech had been declining after peaking in 2021, but public funding began to mobilize globally. In Japan, a subsidy program known as the ‘SBIR Phase 3’ (Small Business Innovation Research)—with a total budget of just under 50 billion yen—was launched in 2023. Food startups secured an average of over 1 billion yen in funding through this initiative, enabling them to advance the development of food products and equipment.”
According to Mr. Tanaka, the period from this point up to around 2024 is considered the “first stage.” During this time, startups rooted in Japanese food culture—such as Sea Vegetable Co., Ltd., a leader in seaweed farming, and Algarex Co., Ltd., which developed an umami-rich powder from edible algae fermented using lees from the awamori distillation process—emerged one after another, and the term “food tech” became widely recognized. (To be continued in the second part)
Interviewee
Hirotaka Tanaka
Representative Director and CEO, UnlocX Inc. After working at Panasonic, he spent eight years at McKinsey & Company—primarily in the high-tech and telecommunications sectors—engaging in growth strategy formulation and execution, M&A, new business development, and collaborations with startups. In 2017, he joined Sigmaxyz and launched “SKS JAPAN,” a global food tech summit. While supporting food-related business development and community building, he founded UnlocX Inc. in October 2023 with the aim of creating a food ecosystem. He is a co-author of Food Tech Revolution (2020, Nikkei BP), The Future of Food Transformed by Food Tech (2025, PHP Shinsho), and Food Tech as Essential Knowledge (2025, Nikkei BP).
Text: Kie Oku
Photo: Kazue Shibuya
