Author Archives: The Japan Agricultural News

【Opinion】Reengineering member associations of agricultural cooperatives (Jan. 24, 2017)

[By Yoichi Tashiro, professor emeritus at Otsuma Women’s University] Agricultural cooperatives are in the middle of eagerly designing and implementing their midterm three-year plan including reviewing their sales and procurement business, as well as the agriculture promotion plan and the self-reform plan. While the situation surrounding global agriculture is in turmoil along with Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States, the farm coops must tackle challenges of reform in order to live up to farmers’ expectations. Meanwhile, the agriculture working group of the government’s Regulatory Reform Promotion Council suggested halving the number of farm coops engaging in financial business in three years. If financial business is separated from … Continue reading

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【News】 Village in the sky (Jan. 1, 2017)

Shimoguri-no-sato is a solitary hamlet in the mountains in Kamimura village, Iida city, Nagano Prefecture, which has become one of the popular tourist destinations in Japan. A photo of the village taken by a drone showed impressive houses and fields that cling to the steep slope on the southeastern side of the mountain. People grow local specialties such as Shimoguri potatoes and buckwheat on the well-drained soil on the slope of up to 38 degrees at approximately 800 to 1,000 kilometers above sea level. The village enjoys sunlight from early morning till evening. So people used to say, “don’t let you daughter get married to a man from Shimoguri-no-sato,” as … Continue reading

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【News】 Japan’s exports of beef and green tea both hit new records in 2016 (Feb. 2, 2017)

Among home-grown agricultural and livestock products with an annual export exceeding 10 billion yen, both of Japanese beef and green tea set new records of exports in 2016, the latest Trade Statistics of the Ministry of Finance revealed. Japanese beef exports enjoyed a larger growth in overseas markets because of increased recognition of its product name “Wagyu” as well as a worldwide boom in the popularity of Japanese cuisine. Overseas sales of Japanese beef increased to 13.5 billion yen in 2016, 23 percent up over the previous year, breaking the record for six straight years. The amount of Japanese beef exports totaled 1908 tons in 2016, 18 percent up over … Continue reading

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【News】 Japanese Government to lift the ban on Russian forage imports (Jan. 31, 2017)

Japan and Russia have begun talks on lifting of Japanese import ban on Russian forage in order to stabilize supplies of forage to Japanese livestock farmers, Yuji Yamamoto, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), said at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councilors on January 31. The Japanese Government has been banning imports of forage produced in Russia because Russia is one of the countries that have experienced outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). However, MAFF is now planning to approve imports of Russian forage if the two Governments can make an agreement on quarantine requirements to prevent the spread of FMD. In late January, Russian … Continue reading

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【News】 Japanese Government decides to increase annual import of butter up to 13,000 tons in fiscal 2017 under a new import system (Jan. 28, 2017)

Japan’s state-trade system of butter and skimmed milk imports will be revised in fiscal 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on January 27. In past years, MAFF made a decision three times in a year on how much Japan should import butter and other dairy products on the basis of the latest figures of demand and supply. This existing import system will be replaced by a new program in fiscal year 2017, under which MAFF makes a decision once a year in principle on a bulk quantity of annual imports of dairy products by estimating import requirements on the basis of past records on demand and … Continue reading

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