The National Institute of Nutrition, the original institute, was founded in September 1920, for the purpose of contributing to the promotion of the nation's health and welfare in the field of nutrition. At that time, the nutritional research on rice, Japan's staple food, was carried out, and many papers were published concerning the relationbetween polishment of rice and the digestibility. Other important researches were on energy metabolism of the Japanese and on nutritional composition of Japanese foods. These were the first works done in Japan.
After the Second World War, in cooperation with the Section of Nutrition, Ministry of Health and Welfare, the institute carried out the nutritional survey on the Japanese, and helped in improving the nutritional condition of this malnutritional nation. As the result, the nation's physique was elevated and its average life expectancy was extended to the top level of the world.
Nowadays, one of the main research projects is the establishment of Recommended Dietary Allowances and the Tables of Foods Composition. Fundamental researches on diseases related to nutrition and the nation's health promotion are also being carried out with the technique of molecular biology. This institute works as a research center of the Health Promotion and Nutrition.
This institute are consist of one section general affairs and seven research divisions, each having two, three or four laboratories of their own fields. The results of the researches and investigations done in the institute are published annually.