US Vice President shows interest in trade talks with Japan

TOKYO, Oct. 18 — The United States has reiterated a strong interest in pursuing a new bilateral trade agreement with Japan during a high-level meeting, according to informed sources. Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso met U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in the second round of Japan-the U.S. Economic Dialogue that took place on Oct. 16 in Washington, DC. During the meeting, they made some progress on bilateral trade issues, including the lifting of restrictions on Japanese persimmon and on U.S. potatoes from Idaho. Tokyo also agreed to streamline testing procedures for American automobile exports. “Both sides affirmed that they would intensify work to achieve further progress in the near … Continue reading

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ZEN-NOH suggesting new ways of eating rice in collaboration with all-you-can-eat Sweets Paradise cafés in Japan

TOKYO, Oct. 25 – National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH) started offering rice parfait at Sweets Paradise buffet restaurants in three major cities in Japan. The collaboration between ZEN-NOH and the buffet chain restaurants aims to propose new ways of eating rice particularity to young women. The original menu is to be offered until November 5, 2017. The shops began offering three types of rice dishes in a parfait glass, served with diced avocado, baby leaves, imitation crabmeat, and soy ponzu-dressing jelly sauce, for example. To get all the attention of Instagram photographers, particularly of young female users of the popular Internet-based photo-sharing service, they are very photogenic. They are … Continue reading

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Campaign kicks off to support children in need by eating onigiri rice balls

TOKYO, Oct. 6 – Eat onigiri and change the world — a nonprofit organization kicked off a campaign on Oct. 5, asking people to post photographs related to onigiri rice balls on social media to provide school meals for children in need. Under the Onigiri Action campaign organized by TABLE FOR TWO, for every onigiri-related photo posted on the organization’s website or on SNS with a hashtag #OnigiriAction, the campaign’s sponsors and supporters will donate 100 yen, equivalent to five school meals delivered to children in Asia and Africa. The group has been organizing the campaign every year since 2015 around Oct. 16, the day when the United Nations celebrates … Continue reading

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Japanese scientists succeed in first soybean genome-editing

TOKYO, Oct. 16 — A group of Japanese scientists using advanced genome-editing technologies has succeeded in editing genes that contribute to the size of soybeans. The team of agricultural scientists, from Hokkaido University, Yokohama City University and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, edited the genome from grain. Genome refers to the entire DNA sequence of an organism, and genome editing is to make specific changes to the DNA of an organism. The research team focused on the crop size. “But the results in the lab that show promise could lead to reduced molecules of soy allergens,” said Tetsuya Yamada from Hokkaido University’s graduate research faculty of agriculture. Yet, … Continue reading

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Farmers in Tateno, Minamiaso, still unable to resume business 1.5 years after Kumamoto earthquakes

KUMAMOTO, Oct. 18 – In the Tateno district in the village of Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, farmers are still having difficulties resuming their business even 1.5 years after the destructive earthquakes in April 2016. Reconstruction efforts have been successfully made to recover water supply and rebuild new roads gradually, but most of the farmers in the region are still not able to resume their business back in their farmlands. Lack of construction vendors The Tateno district was severely hit by the earthquakes on April 16, 2016, with its most evident damage on the large Aso Ohashi bridge. Currently, the rice fields and other farmlands close to the collapsed bridge are filled … Continue reading

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