Author Archives: The Japan Agricultural News

【News】 Intellectual property right of potted gentians to be exported to EU growers by Hachimantai city government, Iwate prefecture (Oct. 16, 2016)

Hachimantai city government begins to export its “intellectual property right” by providing farmers in a member country of the European Union with its plant breeder’s rights, which enables European farmers to grow and market their potted gentians, special products of the city in Iwate prefecture. A market of potted flowers in EU is much bigger than that in Japan. It is banned by EU’s rules of plant epidemic prevention, however, for Japanese growers to directly ship potted flowers with soil attached to the market. The city government has found an alternative way of exporting its special product to the European market by selling seeds of gentians and plant breeder’s rights … Continue reading

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【News】 Special Committee begins deliberation whether to ratify TPP free trade pact: Ruling and opposite parties spar over deliberation time taking Diet dissolution into consideration (Oct.15, 2016)

The special committee of the House of Representatives began deliberation whether to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact and pass its related bills under the chairmanship of Ryu Shionoya on October 14. The administration and ruling parties are eager for approval of the TPP agreement, since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged that the TPP pact should be ratified at the current session of the Diet. On the other hand, opposite parties are poised to become more aggressive against the Shinzo Abe’s administration by carrying out thorough investigations not only into TPP pact’s consistency with the Diet’s resolution regarding the TPP trade negotiations, but also into dubious transactions … Continue reading

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【News】 “NoshoNavi” and ZEN-NOH to sponsor common platform hosting multiple cloud services for totally managing farming data (Oct. 13, 2016)

NoshoNavi Co., Ltd., established by agricultural corporations and farm-related organizations at Chuo-ku, Tokyo, will begin next April to sponsor a common “platform for Nosho (literally, professional farmers),” which is a network host of several providers of cloud computing service respectively operated by a farm machinery manufacturer and computer firms, in cooperation with ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations), agricultural cooperatives’ national business organization. It will be possible for farmers and their organizations throughout the country to make access to information and data provided by those cloud systems through the common platform. The NoshoNavi expects some hundred farmers and agricultural corporations to be users of the platform for the time … Continue reading

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【News】 Compensatory subsidy to be paid to outsider dairy farmers as well on condition of participation in supply-demand adjustment programs (Oct. 13, 2016)

The government and ruling parties are considering expanding recipients of compensatory subsidies for producers of law milk for manufacturing uses to so-called outsiders who do not ship their fresh milk through designated dairy farmers groups. The outsiders of dairy farmers could be required to supply some of their milk production for processing as well. Under a new framework of subsidy payment, however, it is concerned that when supply-demand balance turns negative, law milk price will decline to bring about a further shrinking of production base. The Government and ruling parties plan to reach a settlement over the matter of subsidy payments to the outsiders in November. Stakeholders are now focusing … Continue reading

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【Opinion】All-out competition leads to devastation of agriculture (Sep. 26, 2016)

[By Masaru Kaneko, Professor of Keio University] Two major United States presidential election candidates – Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton – are both against the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. How meaningful is it for Japan to rush to ratify the agreement, when the U.S. is not in a situation to pass it? If Clinton becomes the president, the U.S. could make even harsher requests. The biggest points at issue are the stock breeding and dairy farming sectors. As for stock breeding, 70 percent of tariffs on beef and pork will be eliminated under the pact. If some dairy products including cheese will be subject to market liberalization, there are … Continue reading

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