THE MARKET SYSTEM IN JAPAN, AND EFFORTS OF MARKETING HALAL FOOD PRODUCTS BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES SISTEM PASARAN JEPUN DAN USAHA PEMASARAN HALAL PRODUK MAKANAN OLEH NEGARA ASING

Abstract

This article looks into the food market system in Japan, its ability to provide for the halal food demands of the Muslim consumers in the country, and efforts by countries other than Japan to supply the demand of the Muslim population. This article issues two key questions. The first one is whether the Japanese food market is able to answer the demands or standards of halal food products for Muslim consumers in the country. The second is whether other countries, Islamic or nonIslamic, also participated in this market of supplying halal food products to the Muslim consumers in Japan. This article uses the library approach of providing analysis of the situation based on books and articles consulted, as well as newspaper articles on the topic. This article shows Japan takes its food market seriously, with strict regulations and quality control practices in place to ensure the safety of food products for the consumption. However, Japan could not fulfil the demands of the Muslim consumers in Japan, due to factors, such as the extremely small percentage of Muslim residents in Japan, the time- and cost-consuming method of halal food production and processing, compared to the cheaper method of using food products deemed nonhalal by Muslims, such as alcohol and pork gelatine, and the failure of Japanese food companies set up in Muslim countries to even adhere to halal food standards. This provided a window of opportunity for other countries to export their halal food products to Japan for Muslim consumption. However, the Muslim countries analysed (Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and the Middle East region) showed little interest in answering this demand. In fact, non-Muslim countries such as Australia and Brazil took advantage and became the main suppliers of halal food products, especially meat, to the minority Muslim consumers in Japan.