The cropland Footprint represents the area of productive land required for the
production of food crops, fiber, oil crops, and rubber. Globally, this is the second
largest component of the Ecological Footprint. Similar to most high-income nations,
the contribution of the cropland Footprint to Japan’s total Ecological footprint is less,
corresponding to 14 percent and 4 percent of Japan’s EFC and EFP respectively.
Cropland occupies the most productive land worldwide -- one hectare of cropland
has the highest biocapacity of any land-use type. Japan has 4.7 million hectares of
cropland, corresponding to a biocapacity of 0.13 gha per capita and giving Japan
cropland availability in the bottom 10 percent of all countries.
As a consequence, Japan is highly reliant on other countries for imports to satisfy
the majority of its cropland EFC, and this trend has been increasing. Nevertheless,
Japan’s cropland EFC of 0.58 gha per capita is similar to many developing countries.
In comparison, the United States consumes twice as much per capita.
Japan’s cropland EFC is on a declining trend, but, given the universal need for food,
there is a limit to how much this can continue to decrease. Climate change has the
potential to change global output of crops in the long-term, and this may constrain
Japan’s ability to acquire even the small amounts it requires.