TOKYO, Jan. 4 -On January 3, 2026, 21 universities competed in the Day 2 for the 102nd Tokyo-Hakone Round-Trip College Ekiden Race (Hakone Ekiden) from Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, to Otemachi, Tokyo (from 6th to 10th stages totaling 109.6 kilometers). Aoyama Gakuin University won its 9th, and 3rd consecutive, overall victory. Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), which started the second day of the two-day race in 13th place, passed on the sash (tasuki in Japanese) to the goal and finished in 18th place overall. However, it could not secure a seed that they had wanted for the past 16 years. “Go for it, Yua!” The vigorous cheering came from 75-year-old … Continue reading →

OKAYAMA, Jan. 6 — Japan is the world’s fourth biggest consumer of coffee in terms of volume, but it imported 36,0287 tons of green coffee beans in 2024 while the annual domestic production is estimated to be only about 10 tons. Attempts have been made in recent years to establish a production base for coffee beans in the country, which has a high demand for the product but produces a very small quantity of its own. A company in Okayama Prefecture newly set up a coffee production division, aiming to harvest a maximum of 500 kilograms of green coffee beans in a few years when its coffee trees mature. It … Continue reading →

The Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Hokkaido, Japan, held a press conference in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, to announce a new advertising series featuring Masahiro Matsuoka, a former member of the Japanese pop-rock band TOKIO. The ad series features Matsuoka as the King of Milk Land to highlight the deliciousness and delightfulness of Hokkaido’s milk and dairy products. Hokuren aims to increase milk consumption, which is currently declining, by having Matsuoka, a Hokkaido native popular among people of all ages, as a PR man. The campaign is part of the initiative named “Milk Land Hokkaido” that runs to boost milk consumption based on the funds from dairy product producers. The … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Dec. 21 — Wooden boxes used to ship apples are proving popular as a decorative piece of furniture to add a stylish touch to homes and stores. Shinsaka Seikan in the town of Nanbu in Aomori Prefecture is a long-established manufacturer, which has been producing fruit shipping crates for more than 70 years. Even as plastic shipping containers have become the mainstream, the company’s craftsmen continue to handcraft wooden cases using red pine grown in Aomori Prefecture. A decline in demand for wooden shipping boxes prompted the firm to create and sell smaller crates for interior decoration purposes. In 2022, the boxes attracted attention after they were used as … Continue reading →