Land-based aquaculture stocks,
across all of Japan.

On September 11, Japan's farm ministry set up a food-tech strategy group. It aims to grow Japan's global share in four areas, plant factories, land-based aquaculture, food machinery and new foods, and requested a ¥50.2 billion investment budget for fiscal 2027. Food tech is one of 17 strategic fields the Takaichi government targets for investment in its growth strategy, and land-based aquaculture is at its core. For food tech as a whole, the government plans about ¥2.9 trillion in public and private investment through fiscal 2040.

Behind it is a gap between demand and supply for fish. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world consumption of aquatic food has grown nearly twice as fast as the population since 1961, while wild catch has been flat since the late 1980s. In 2022, aquaculture overtook capture fisheries for the first time. But sea cages are exposed to high water temperatures, red tides and typhoons. Japan's Fisheries Agency says changes in the ocean, such as high water temperatures, are pushing fishing and aquaculture output down.

Land-based aquaculture controls temperature and water quality inside tanks, so it is less exposed to weather and can be done far from the sea. Notified farms reached 808 as of January 2026, up 68 in a year. NTT, JGC, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co. have entered from other industries. It is starting to show in earnings: Puequ, which makes equipment for these farms, says in its annual report that sales in this field rose sharply from the year before.

• Source：Farm ministry sets up a new food-tech group (Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun, September 14, 2026, in Japanese)
• Source：Why NTT and JGC are moving into land-based aquaculture (Newswitch, August 17, 2026, in Japanese)
• Source：FAO Report: Global fisheries and aquaculture production reaches a new record high (FAO, June 7, 2024)
• Source：The future of aquaculture: land-based farming (Fisheries Agency, White Paper on Fisheries, in Japanese)
• Source：Notifications of land-based aquaculture (Fisheries Agency, in Japanese)

Sea farming floats cages in the ocean. Water temperature and currents differ from place to place, so farming has to fit each stretch of sea. Land-based farming builds the whole environment inside tanks. The same facility design should work anywhere.

For now, though, each facility is designed one by one, and the upfront investment and electricity bills are heavy. Japan's fisheries white paper also says land-based farms need large investment and use a lot of power, so cutting costs is the challenge. In March 2026, the University of the Ryukyus launched a group seeking an international standard for modular land-based farming equipment, so that anyone can farm fish anywhere.

If designs become standard, both the cost of building a farm and the time to start it up should fall, and output and sales could rise quickly. So we used Katana to read every annual report that mentions land-based aquaculture, and checked how far each company has gone.

• Source：University of the Ryukyus sets up a standards group for the AQUAXMGRID modular land-based aquaculture technology (Mynavi Agri, March 13, 2026, in Japanese)

Of the 18 companies whose annual reports mention land-based aquaculture, 13 run it as a business. Of the other five, one pulled back, one mentions it only in market commentary, and three are still developing products or aiming to enter. The lineup is a TV broadcaster, a sushi chain, industrial gas companies, a pump maker, a spark plug maker and an IT firm: more outsiders than seafood companies.

But none reported a profit from land-based farming. RKB Mainichi Holdings reached its first shipment, but utilization lagged behind plant depreciation and it posted an operating loss. Asahi Yukizai tested a recirculating system as a business, then stopped focusing on the field. The fish farmers have either just started shipping or have not yet. Atland, the Umios and Mitsubishi Corporation joint venture, was still planning a capital increase to start up its plant as of March 2026. The facility described as among the world's largest, a 10,000-ton-a-year farm in Tsu, Mie, started operating in May 2026, but its operator, Pure Salmon Japan, is not listed, and its first harvest is set for 2028.

The one company to report a step toward standard designs is Air Water. It is prototyping a modular system that combines oxygen supply and carbon dioxide removal, built for small and mid-sized farms, with easier maintenance and lower running costs in mind.

Unlike the sea, land-based farming builds its environment from scratch inside tanks. If designs become standard, the same farm could be built anywhere, and output and sales could rise quickly. What we looked for are the companies that have already started.

• Source：About ATLAND (Atland, in Japanese)
• Source：A world-class land-based salmon farm starts in Tsu, Mie in May (Chunichi Shimbun, April 26, 2026, in Japanese)
• Source：Pure Salmon Japan: first eggs placed at 10,000-tonne RAS facility (Salmon Business, May 21, 2026)