Category Archives: Others

TOKYO, Nov. 12 – You are to select good rice seeds, plant them, get rid of weeds, and harvest them – all very skillfully in this brand-new action/simulation game. A Japanese game maker, Marvelous Inc., will release an all-new authentic rice-growing simulation game on November 12, 2020. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (“Tensui no Sakuna Hime” in Japanese) is an action role-playing game that delivers the story of Princess Sakuna, a harvest goddess exiled to the Isle of Demons (“Hinoe Island” in Japanese) to expunge the beasts controlling the island. Princess Sakuna gets stronger by eating high-quality rice grown by herself. So how to produce high-quality rice is the key … Continue reading →

TOYAMA, Oct. 23-An empty tractor completed the work at one farmland and moved to another. No one was sitting in the driver seat, but on the way when it saw a mannequin doll crossing, it stopped automatically and give way to the doll. Such a futuristic experiment was shown at the farmland of an agricultural corporation in the capital of Toyama Prefecture on October 22, 2020. The next-generation tractor was developed by a consortium led by the National Agricultural Research Organization and demonstrated in the prefecture in central Japan. Conventional robot tractors can work autonomously without a driver in farmland, but they still need drivers to drive on the road. … Continue reading →

AICHI, Oct. 16 – New series of collectible cards featuring farmers are drawing consumers’ attention in Japan. The card called “Noh Card (Farmers Card)” proposed by three young farmers is a business card-sized card with a picture of farmers and information on their proud products. Consumers can have fun collecting them like other trading cards, and that encourages them to buy more agricultural products from more than 70 farmers who currently participate in the project. One of the proposers, Hiroyasu Ogawa is a 30-year-old grape tomato grower in Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture. He hopes that the initiative can bring consumers and farmers closer together and build a positive image of … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Oct. 15 – The number of wild boars caught in the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan has been increasing sharply as their areas of habitat expanded north. A total of 43,885 were captured in the six prefectures in Tohoku – Akita, Aomori, Iwate, Fukushima, Miyagi and Yamagata – in fiscal 2019, more than doubling in five years. While it has been considered difficult for wild boars to pass the winter in the region, the increase in the captures can be attributed to global warming and a growing population of the animal. The prefectures are on the alert, as wild boars not only cause damage to crops but also could … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Sep. 13 – The number of bears captured in Japan was record 6,285 in fiscal 2019, according to a survey by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan. Bears had less food in the mountains in autumn last year due to a poor acorn crop across the country. They moved around to look for food, and that increased the number of conflicts between bears and people to 140. The number of bears captured is on the rise, with 1,941 captured already in the first four months of fiscal 2020. The ministry urges farmers to strictly follow bear safety cautions, such as not leaving agricultural products in the fields, to … Continue reading →