Japan's self-sufficiency in food stayed at 40 percent in fiscal 2005 for the eighth straight year since fiscal 1998, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Thursday.

Food self-sufficiency, calculated in calorie terms, was 73 percent in 1965 and has since been on the decline, partly due to the Westernization of eating habits, as a result of which the Japanese now eat less rice than they used to, the ministry said.