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In Japan, laws and judicial precedents have never provided a definitive definition of national security. In the United States, an example can be found in a 1971 Supreme Court ruling where Justice Black stated that "security is a broad, vague generality."

This case is the famous Pentagon Papers case, which was also made into a movie. It involved the federal government seeking an injunction against newspapers to stop the publication of classified documents regarding the Vietnam War prepared by the Department of Defense, citing national security as the reason.

National security used to be discussed primarily in a military context, as seen in the Pentagon Papers case. However, the concept of security has gradually expanded its scope. For example, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, introduced the concept of "human security" in its 1994 Human Development Report.

The concept of human security includes food security, which the report defined as ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food. In Japan, Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the "Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Act" enacted in 1999 also stipulates that a stable supply of high-quality food must be provided at reasonable prices.

Traditionally, discussions regarding food safety focused mainly on measures against contaminants in food. In this sense, "safety" is the term used. However, food security encourages examination from the perspective of "security" rather than just "safety." It can be said that food safety has moved beyond just quality safety to become a matter of national security.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2021 remained at 38% on a calorie basis and a record low of 63% on a production value basis. The Japanese government has set a goal to raise these figures to 45% on a calorie basis and 75% on a production value basis by 2030. To achieve this, given the prolonged situation in Ukraine, the key will be how to strengthen food supply chains.

A supply chain refers to the series of networks through which raw materials become products and reach consumers. With economic globalization, supply chains now include countries with socio-economic systems different from Japan's. While this situation poses a risk to the supply chain, it must be said that completely cutting off (decoupling) non-allied countries from the supply chain is difficult. Therefore, how to ensure food security, including the promotion of domestic agriculture, is a crucial challenge today.

Japan formulated its first National Security Strategy in December 2013, establishing basic policies for security-related foreign and defense policy. Recently, policies regarding economic security have been developed to secure Japan's interests from an economic perspective. The revision of the National Security Strategy, scheduled for the end of this year, is also expected to include mentions of economic security.

Recent laws from a security standpoint include the "Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Border Islands" (Important Land Use Restriction Act) established in June 2021, followed by the "Act on the Promotion of Ensuring National Security through Integrated Implementation of Economic Measures" (Economic Security Promotion Act) passed in May of this year. However, neither of these addressed the issue of food.

The Important Land Use Restriction Act contains provisions for investigating the usage status of designated areas around facilities important for national security and remote border islands. Regarding food security, the usage of farmland and water sources is an issue, but these are not currently covered. The Economic Security Promotion Act introduces measures to strengthen supply chain resilience and envisions semiconductors and pharmaceuticals as target materials, but makes no mention of food.

The supplementary provisions of the Important Land Use Restriction Act stipulate that the status of implementation will be reviewed five years after enforcement, and three years after enforcement for the Economic Security Promotion Act, with necessary measures to be taken based on the results. Since food is closely related to the lives of the citizens, it seems necessary to take a multifaceted approach not only by improving the food self-sufficiency rate but also from a legislative perspective. Japan's response to food security is likely to begin in earnest from now on.

If we compare security issues to a computer, they can be described as the essential foundation, much like an operating system. To make that foundation solid, it is vital to further promote cooperation between the public and private sectors and to share a sense of security (security sense) and a vision of security (security vision) across society as a whole.