JETRO Invest Japan Report 2023
Chapter3. Recent Government Measures Section5. Project to Accelerate Biomanufacturing Revolution

In the field of biomanufacturing, the technology is expected to be used widely and revolutionarily, not only in pharmaceuticals and foods, which are being pioneered, but also in a wide variety of industries including chemicals, materials, textiles, and fuels.

In particular, with the generic modification technology, etc., it is attracting attention as a technology for enhancing the substance productivity that microorganisms originally have, acquiring the productivity of target substances, or acquiring target substances through enzymatic degradation, etc. It was positioned as one of the pillars of the science, technology, and innovation in the Grand Design and Action Plan for a New Form of Capitalism (approved by the Cabinet in June 2022).

In order to build an innovative value chain with a variety of raw materials and products as an exit, by actively conducting necessary technological and social system demonstrations, it is expected to become the industrial foundation for the next generation and the core of Japan's industrial competitiveness, as a sustainable manufacturing alternative to the conventional manufacturing process that uses fossil resources as raw materials.

This project will implement technology development and system demonstration for the acquisition of biomanufacturing raw materials, as well as cultivation of platformers for microorganism modification, etc., that hold the source of added value for biomanufacturing, development of improvement technologies for microorganism, etc., and development and demonstration of manufacturing technology for mass production.

A total budget of about 300 billion yen was allocated for the project period from FY2023 to FY2032.

Chart 3-5: Project to Accelerate Biomanufacturing Revolution
Items	R&D Items	Details
R&D (1)	Development and demonstration for collection and recycling of unused resources	Surveys to establish a supply chain for collecting unused resources Development and demonstration of the conversion of unused resources into raw materials Demonstration of collecting bio-products, etc. as raw materials for promoting recycle-oriented biomanufacturing
R&D (2)	Development and breeding of industrial microorganisms and advancement of microorganism modification platform technology	Development and breeding of industrial microorganisms, etc. Advancement of platform technology through the development and breeding of industrial microorganisms, etc.
R&D (3)	Development and demonstration of production technology for target substances by microorganisms, etc.	Development of technologies and production demonstration associated with scale-up, such as mass culture, which are necessary for the production of substances on a commercial scale using microorganisms, etc.
R&D (4)	Development and demonstration of separation, refining, and processing technologies for materials manufactured by microorganism, etc.	Development and production demonstration of technologies for separation and refining of substances produced through the process using microorganisms, such as fermentation and mass culture using culture media, and processing them into final products
R&D (5)	Development of evaluation methods for social implementation of biomanufacturing products	Development and case studies necessary to consider the following. System to differentiate products and encourage consumers to choose them as high-value-added products (labelling rules, brand strategy) System to convert greenhouse gases reduction efforts into credits and other values (recovery of increased costs) (LCA(Life Cycle Assessment) assessment, carbon credit trading) System including collection rules for the disposal of bio-derived products (promotion of behavioral change among stakeholders) System in which Japan's technologies and products are evaluated internationally towards the realization of resource-recycling economy (Products manufactured in Japan are evaluated as highly environmentally friendly) Analysis to promote acceptance by consumers and companies for market launch (consumer and company surveys)