Japan, the largest Asian importer of corn, beef and pork, has lowered its target for food self-sufficiency to 45 percent by 2026 from the current 50 percent, said Bloomberg. The decision was announced by the Agriculture Ministry after several days of speculation. Bloomberg said the new target reflects what’s happening in ongoing free-trade negotiations, including the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership. It quoted the director of the Agriculture Ministry’s policy-planning division as saying, “We need to make our self-sufficiency target more feasible as the gap between the previous goal and reality is widening.” The previous goal of 50 percent was set in 2010. Bloomberg said Japan imports about 60 percent of its food.