In April 2026, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism made clear a policy to strengthen support as a nation toward expanding facilities that recover \u201crecycled phosphorus\u201d from sewage sludge. To rebuild the stable-supply system for fertilizer raw materials, which was shaken in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the move to use sewage-treatment plants\u2014existing infrastructure\u2014as a \u201cdomestic phosphorus source\u201d is getting into full swing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japanese agriculture relies on imports for almost all of its phosphorus. The main procurement source is China (about 90%), and from late 2021 onward, the tightening of China\u2019s export inspections and supply anxiety from the Russia-Ukraine situation overlapped, causing domestic fertilizer prices to surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries\u2019 \u201cFood Security Strengthening Policy Framework\u201d (decided December 2022) set the goal of \u201cexpanding the utilization ratio of domestic resources in fertilizer use (phosphorus basis) to 40% by 2030.\u201d One of the means holding the key to achievement is the recovery of recycled phosphorus from sewage sludge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At domestic sewage-treatment plants, about 2.3 million tons of sludge are generated annually, containing about 50,000 tons of phosphorus. This has the potential to cover a considerable amount of the fertilizer phosphorus consumed by domestic agriculture. However, as things stand, the municipalities working on phosphorus recovery number only 5 nationwide (6 treatment plants), and the high cost of facility development has been a wall to adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main technology for recovering phosphorus from sewage sludge is the \u201cMAP method (magnesium ammonium phosphate method).\u201d It is a mechanism where, by adding magnesium to the sludge, phosphorus is crystallized and recovered as magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP). The recovered \u201crecycled phosphorus,\u201d after fertilizer registration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, can be distributed as an agricultural fertilizer raw material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yokohama City, using B-DASH (the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism\u2019s Breakthrough by Dynamic Approach in Sewage High Technology Project), has worked on demonstrating a phosphorus-recovery facility jointly with Tsukishima JFE Aqua Solution. That project, adopted in February 2023, saw its demonstration facility completed in March 2026, and experimental recycled-phosphorus recovery has begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Fukuoka City, JA Zen-Noh Fukuren uses the recovered recycled phosphorus in the fertilizer product \u201cFukumap neo.\u201d When a spinach farmer in Kurume City tried it, they reported that \u201cthe weight per plant increased by 10%, and the vividness of the color also improved,\u201d confirming an effect on crops as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of this strengthening of national support is lowering the hurdle of facility-development costs. Until now, for a municipality to install a phosphorus-recovery facility on its own required a large initial investment, and in many cases the cost-effectiveness didn\u2019t add up. By developing and expanding a subsidy scheme, the nation aims to push forward the transition to phosphorus-recovery facilities from the roughly 1,000 facilities working on fertilizer use, out of the more than 1,000 sewage-treatment plants nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries launched the \u201cProject to Expand the Use of Domestic Fertilizer Resources\u201d in February 2023 and established a nationwide promotion council. It has advanced the adoption of fertilizers derived from domestic resources such as sewage sludge and livestock compost, and this facility-expansion support can be said to accelerate that effort one notch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expansion of recycled phosphorus is not limited to merely domesticating fertilizer. Sewage sludge has conventionally been treated as waste that incurs cost burdens. By having it evaluated as an agricultural resource, a structure is born in which urban infrastructure and agriculture are connected in a loop of resource circulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From an SDGs perspective too, the significance is great. Goal 12 \u201cResponsible Consumption and Production,\u201d Goal 2 \u201cZero Hunger,\u201d Goal 6 \u201cClean Water and Sanitation\u201d\u2014the recycled-phosphorus effort is a solution that spans these multiple goals. Having urban sewage treatment and agricultural production function as a single supply chain is nothing other than a concrete example of a local circular economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, there are also challenges. Sludge may contain heavy metals, and for safe application to farmland, developing a component-management and quality-assurance system is essential. Also, promoting understanding on the farmer side (the psychological hurdle of it being sewage-derived) and establishing stable distribution routes will continue to be necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also worth attention in the context of using food loss and agricultural waste. Like the composting of agricultural residues and food waste, the re-resourcing of sewage sludge can be a first step toward a sustainable production system aiming for \u201czero agricultural waste.\u201d As related efforts, movements toward food-loss reduction and agricultural sustainability are also spreading (The current state and challenges of food loss<\/a>\u3001The intersection of food loss and SDGs \u00d7 agriculture<\/a>\uff09\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\nPoints that farmers and agricultural stakeholders should note<\/h2>\n\n\n\n