Author Archives: The Japan Agricultural News

【News】 Farmers rally against expansion of rice imports (Sept. 30, 2015)

Some 250 farmers from across the nation gathered in Tokyo on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to rally against the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, calling on the government to keep the Diet resolutions which pledge to protect key farm items. Headed by two tractors, the farmers paraded about 2 km from Hibiya Park to the Diet, carrying banners and mikoshi portable shrine made of straw sacks filled with rice. They called out: “Protect rice!” “Withdraw from TPP!” The demonstration was hosted by four farmers’ organizations including Japan Family Farmers Movement. After the rally, they met with a farm ministry official and urged the government not to expand rice imports, as reported to … Continue reading

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【Opinion】 Primary farm co-ops’ directors should represent regional interests (Sept. 29, 2015)

  Yoichi Tashiro, Professor of agricultural economics at Otsuma Women’s University The revised Agricultural Co-operative Society Law, which strongly reflects the intentions of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, was recently approved in the Diet. There are many aspects of the law that don’t make sense, and a rule on assigning primary farm co-ops (JAs)’ directors is one of them. The new law states that more than half of primary JAs’ directors should be certified farmers or professionals of farm product sales and corporate management, and that boards of directors should not be largely imbalanced in terms of age and gender. However, JAs are not public institutions nor government-funded organizations. They … Continue reading

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【News】 20% of cattle slaughterhouses adopt HACCP food safety control system: ministry survey (Sept. 29, 2015)

  Nearly 20 percent of cattle slaughterhouses nationwide have adopted Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, an internationally accepted system of identifying specific hazards and measures for their control to assure food safety, a farm ministry survey revealed. The figure rises to more than half when facilities which plan to introduce or prepare for introduction of the system within three years are included. More than 10 percent of pig slaughterhouses and 20 percent of large-scale poultry processing plants have also adopted the system, according to the survey which was conducted for the first time. 27 out of 138 cattle slaughterhouses, or 19.6 percent of the total, said they have adopted … Continue reading

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【News】 Students polishing oaring skills in middle of beautiful rice fields (Sept. 27, 2015)

Kotaro Yamada Here in the agricultural water channel in the Kurume-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture, you’ll see young paddlers on canoes practicing almost every day. They are students of Fukuoka Prefectural Mizuma High School and members of the Canoe Club of the school. The channel of 20 meters wide and 1 kilometer long is calm and very quiet. It’s almost waveless and windless thanks to the bank. “The channel provides perfect conditions for practicing canoe and our students have an advantage in being able to practice almost every day even in the rough weather,” Kazuhiko Tomimatsu, a 43-year-old teacher of the high school and an advisor to the club, explained. Through repeated … Continue reading

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【News】 Japan agricultural co-ops group delegation to make last-minute call on TPP talks (Sept. 26, 2015)

  The Japan agricultural co-operatives (JA) group plans to send a delegation to Atlanta, where member nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade initiative are scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting starting Wednesday, Sept. 30. The delegation, to be headed by Choe Okuno, president of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), will call on the Japanese government to protect key farm items in line with the Diet resolutions. The group made the decision at a committee meeting on Friday, Sept. 25, along with its policy to also lobby lawmakers domestically in each prefecture. JA-Zenchu officials pointed out that the prospects of the TPP negotiations remain unclear, as there have been … Continue reading

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