Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use change due to deforestation especially in tropical rainforests, are known to be significant, accounting for about 30% of food related GHG emissions. The details of CO₂ emissions account for most of the GHG emissions from land-use change due to food consumption-associated deforestation are currently unknown about Japan. In this study, we analyzed the details of CO₂ emissions from land use change due to Japanese food consumption-associated deforestation using a publicly available database that estimated different types of trade data based on the physical and monetary trade flows. As a result, we found that from 2005 to 2018, food consumption-associated deforestation and CO₂ emissions in Japan were estimated to be in the tens of thousands of hectares and on the order of tens of millions of total CO₂ (tCO₂), which is remarkable compared to Japan's total emissions of 1.24 billion tCO₂ in 2018. Additionally, more than 60% of the land use change CO₂ emissions from Japan's food consumption are indirect emissions embodied in the imported agricultural products, such as palm oil, soya bean, and livestock from outside Japan (mainly Indonesia, Australia, and Brazil), indicating that Japan's food consumption also affects land use change through deforestation in other countries.

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