The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries published the results of the demand for and supply of cheese in Japan in 2017. Total cheese consumption in 2017 was 338,344 tons with an increase of 5.3% compared to the previous year. Going into detail we note that while the "natural cheese" increased by 9.1%, the "processed cheese" decreased by 0.4%.

The production volume of the Japanese "natural cheese" was 45,535 tons and decreased by 3.8%, while the total volume of imported “natural cheese” was 266,980 tons - increased by 8.3% compared to the previous year.
The production volume of the Japanese "processed cheese" was 12,160 tons (- 0.4%) and the import amount was 9.117 tons (- 0.1%).

Source: website of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries