JapanHarvest was founded by Kenichi Narita in 2018. Our initiative, incorporating food waste reduction efforts from Australia, Germany, Denmark and the UK, has become a unique endeavor spreading across Japan and receiving high praise from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Consumer Affairs Agency.
The story of
Japan Harvest's
founding and activities
JapanHarvest was established in April 2021, stemming from the voluntary organisation 'Food Sharing Japan,' founded by Kenichi Narita in March 2018. In March 2022, we formed a partnership with OzHarvest, a leading charity in Australia, to contribute to our country's betterment through food waste reduction and effective utilization, aiming for social impact.
During his time managing restaurants and running a mobile supermarket, Narita witnessed customers' homes and their living conditions firsthand. He saw piles of rubbish, including empty plastic bottles to food packaging, and the challenges people were facing to reduce their food waste and began considering different ways to provide meals to people in need that didn’t require so much packaging.
In May 2017, a news article about OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, caught Narita’s attention. The article was about the opening of OzHarvest’s Market – a free supermarket full of fresh rescued produce. Operating under the philosophy of ‘take what you need, give if you can’ the market provides customers with free produce, with payment optional for those who may be able to afford it. Inspired by this initiative, Narita began donating food to people in need under the voluntary organisation “Food Sharing Japan” in 2018. Taking inspiration from OzHarvest’s food rescue program and Germany’s FoodSharing citizen movement, Nartina positioned his organisation as a “warehouse-free food bank”.
In the early days of “Food Sharing Japan” Narita would visit supermarkets in the early hours of the morning to collect food and deliver it to different charities. Ensuring each charity received the best quality produce, Narita would determine quantity, type, and temperature management for produce. These solo endeavors continued relentlessly, even during Christmas and New Years holiday periods.
During January and February 2020, Narita visited 12 organisations throughout UK, Germany, Denmark, and Australia – including OzHarvest in Australia, Foodsharing Bonn in Germany and the charity Hubbub in the UK - to learn about cutting-edge initiatives. Narita was deeply inspired by OzHarvest’s food rescue model, and two years later, a partnership was born! Narita transitioned ‘Food Sharing Japan’ into the not-for-profit organisation, ‘JapanHarvest’! Today, JapanHarvest is on a mission to ‘Nourish our Country’ by stopping good food from going to waste and delivering it to people in need.
