Japan’s Future Kitchen Takes Shape at Osaka Expo – 3D Printed Wagyu , Regenerated Rice & Soft-Serve

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Japan Expo 2025 has thrown open the freezer door on the future of food and it’s nothing like grandma’s bentō box. From 3D-printed wagyu beef to rainbow-hued rice made from leftovers, Japanese consumers are getting a taste of tomorrow today.

Let’s start with the rice. Not your standard white grain, but “regenerated rice” crafted from frozen food waste, think salad scraps, surplus vegetables, and even egg waste. Pulverised, frozen with liquid nitrogen, then reassembled into rice-like shapes, the result is a colourful, flavour-packed grain that’s good for your gut and the planet. Professor Hidemitsu Furukawa of Yamagata University calls it “circular rice,” developed in collaboration with Nichirei Foods. Variants include “salad rice,” “takana fried rice,” and an oyakodon-inspired blend nicknamed “family rice.” It's practical, playful, and quietly revolutionary — a rice bowl with climate credentials.

Source: Public domain - Regenerated Rice and 3D Printed cellular Waygu beef.

Meanwhile, across the pavilion floor, wagyu is going digital. Osaka’s Healthcare Pavilion unveiled its Consortium for Future Innovation by Cultured Meat, which hopes to see home-use wagyu printers on the market by 2050. You read that right. Print-your-own premium beef, marbled to your liking, no cow required. So far, two lab-grown prototypes, one even featuring checkerboard fat patterns, are already on display. They’re aiming for a full aroma test mid-show, letting visitors sniff (and maybe one day sizzle) their way into the new carnivorous normal.

If all that meat and veg gets too heavy, there’s soft serve to the rescue and everyone can have a cone this time. Japanese firm Nissei has debuted a dairy-free, wheat-free ice cream served in allergen-free rice-flour cones. Flavours include classic vanilla, strawberry, and matcha, and for once, no one has to ask “what’s in that?” The catch? Cost. But if Expo 2025 is anything to go by, scale might not be far behind.

What ties it all together? A deeply Japanese vision of innovation: not just efficiency or novelty, but harmony with nature, with health, and with society. These aren’t just gimmicks for the global stage; they’re early glimpses into what Japanese supermarkets, school lunches, and home kitchens could look like in the very near future. Real tech. Real flavour. Real change.

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