Japan on alert for animal and plant diseases amid rise in inbound travelers during the Lunar New Year

TOKYO, Jan. 25 — As tourists from the Asian region including China are set to increase during the Lunar New Year holidays, the Animal Quarantine Service and the Plant Protection Station of Japan’s agriculture ministry launched a campaign at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan. 24 to prevent entries of animal and plant diseases such as African swine fever and fire blight. Officers handed to foreign visitors and others some 550 pocket tissues containing flyers saying that people entering Japan are banned from bringing meat products and that there are plants which cannot be brought in to the country and plants which require a phytosanitary certificate to import. African swine fever … Continue reading

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ZEN-NOH’s online shopping site opens shop dedicated to Isson Ippin products

TOKYO, Jan. 24  – The products featured in the series of Isson Ippin articles in the Japan Agricultural News (in Japanese) are now available at an online farmers market portal run by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH), the JA Town. On January 24, the JA Town opened an event website to market processed agricultural products highlighted in the series to introduce, each time, one excellent product (Ippin) from one village (Isson) in Japan. The shop sells some of the Isson Ippin grand and gold prize winners in 2005 through 2024. The merchandise include the 2022 Grand Prize winner, Takasaki Fresh Pasta from JA Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture, … Continue reading

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Japan’s farm coop starts selling protein soup using skimmed milk powder

TOKYO, Jan. 21 — The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association (JA ZEN-NOH), a marketing arm of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives group, started selling on Jan. 20 protein soup made with domestically-produced skimmed milk powder. The powdered product, to be consumed by dissolving it in hot water, will be included in the lineup of JA ZEN-NOH’s Nippon Yell brand. The protein — made using ingredients from Hokkaido such as skimmed milk powder, onions, sweet corn and red bean powder — comes in three types, including corn soup. JA ZEN-NOH hopes to boost consumption of milk by utilizing skimmed milk powder to produce protein products, amid the growth of markets for … Continue reading

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Enjoy in-flight meals on the ground; Winery in Sera Town, Hiroshima, starts serving dishes supervised by JAL first class chef featuring local ingredients

HIROSHIMA, Jan 21 – “We serve in-flight meals on the ground.” Sera Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, and Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. (JAL) have created a new lunch menu featuring local ingredients and begun serving it at Sera Winery in Sera Town since mid-January. The town, known for fruit and flower tourist farms, has fewer tourist attractions in winter, so it developed two dishes under the supervision of a chef in charge of in-flight meals for JAL’s international first-class flights. The dishes meet high safety standards for in-flight meals, such as requirements for temperature controls. “A bowl of rice topped with Sera Minori Roast Beef” (3,500 yen) comes with slowly-cooked roast beef, … Continue reading

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Come and join straw-art piglets and big mama!

Meet this big mama pig and piglets in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. An artist and volunteers, nearly 100 in total, came together to make this gigantic straw sculpture using rice straw supplied by a farmer in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. It took 1.5 months for them to complete it. It is part of “Shoku-to-Ikiru (Living with Food),” an event to provoke interest in food-related social issues, such as food waste and vanishing regional food culture. The sculpture, measuring six meters in length, two meters in width, and three meters in height, was created by a 48-year-old artist, Yuma Matsumoto, under the theme of “Mother’s Milk.” It has … Continue reading

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