Despite seeing a decline in retail volume sales in 2023, Japanese food manufacturers and retailers maintain high hopes for the potential of frozen ready meals, actively pursuing new product development. The high percentage of single-person households, dual-income families, and senior citizens are notable characteristics of Japan’s demographic landscape, which strongly appeals to the convenience offered by these products.
In 2022 and 2023, chilled ready meals saw retail volume growth in Japan as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic waned and people returned to busy lives. However, despite this recovery in volume sales, the per capita sales figures are already high, making future volume growth challenging, as seen from the decline expected in 2024 and indeed throughout the forecast period.
Meal kits enjoyed steady dynamic growth in Japan until 2022, due to their high convenience; however, they are now facing challenges such as rising prices and intense competition from alternative categories. This contributed to retail volume decline in 2023, with just slight growth anticipated in 2024.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Meals and Soups industry in Japan with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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Meals and Soups
This is the aggregation of ready meals, pizza, food kits, prepared salads, and soup. Includes: These are products that have had recipe 'skills' added to them by the manufacturer, resulting in a high degree of readiness, completion and convenience. Food kits is an exception where typically the extent of preparation is much shorter than other meal products; includes meal kits where consumers are to put together pre-portioned ingredients and cook with the guidance of recipe cards. Ready meals are generally accepted to be complete meals that require few or no extra ingredients. However, in the case of shelf stable ready meals, the term also encompasses meal 'centres’; for food kits, they do require a degree of cooking and preparation. As such, some meals may require cooking (ready-to-cook); others may simply need reheating, prior to serving (ready-to-eat). Excludes: Any products sold unpackaged and/or by weight, including food sold from a retail deli counter.
See all of our definitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Meals and Soups research and analysis database.
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