About 90 percent of Japanese consumers are concerned about Japan's future food supply, according to a survey by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
Of the 1,288 people who responded to the survey, 84.9 percent said Japan should sharply increase its degree of food self-sufficiency, while 7.8 percent said Japan does not need to take any action.
The poll was held between mid-November and mid-December, before the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States and the outbreak of bird flu in Asia, including Japan.
The survey showed 44.4 percent of respondents were very concerned about future food supply, 45.6 percent are somewhat concerned, and 8.9 percent are not very concerned or not concerned at all.
Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio based on calories stood at 40 percent in fiscal 2002, one of the lowest levels in the industrialized world.
Tokyo has set a goal of raising the ratio to 45 percent by fiscal 2010, but only 20 percent of respondents said they were aware of that goal.