Second Harvest Japan, Japan’s first food bank (Headquarters: Taito-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter referred to as 2HJ) is pleased to announce that it has received the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award in the “Ensuring Food Access” category of the 1st Connecting Food and Agriculture Awards (https://nippon-food-shift.maff.go.jp/2025/aw_connect_hyosho.html) established as a part of the national campaign “Rethinking Japan through Food: Nippon Food Shift” promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). 2HJ participated in the award ceremony held on November 8.

Yuji Shibata, CEO of 2HJ commented as follows regarding this award.

We are truly honored that our efforts in the field of “Ensuring Food Access”— ‘Providing food support to people in financial hardship and disaster-affected areas over many years, utilizing that expertise to formulate guidelines for sustainable food bank operations, and contributing to the expansion of such activities (from the MAFF press release)’—have been recognized and awarded the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award.

2HJ, which has been active since 2000 as Japan’s first food bank, continues to provide support not only in the Kanto region, where its main bases are located, but also in disaster-affected areas of Noto and in places like Okinawa, where many people have required ongoing food assistance since the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 2HJ has set a goal of handling 15,000 tons of food by 2030, which is ten times the current volume to further ensure “access to food”. This is not something 2HJ can achieve alone. It is essential to collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders, including both public and private sectors under a shared vision. While roles may vary depending on each organization’s positioning, scale, and characteristics, we believe that we can steadily move step by step toward the goal of 15,000 tons by increasing the number of partners who can cooperate as equals.

2HJ continues to accelerate collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders to establish a food safety-net that allows everyone to reliably access sufficient nutritious food whenever needed, even in emergencies.