Category Archives: Others

TOKYO, Mar. 27 – Japan’s National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren) announced on March 26, 2020, that it developed a VR-based farm accident simulator for the first time in Japan. The system uses a virtual reality (VR) headset and a smartphone equipped with glasses exclusively designed for that purpose, and people can simulate five types of agricultural machinery accidents. The mutual insurance co-op will start renting the unit to local agricultural cooperatives in Japan (JA) in April this year, so that JAs can use it for training JA staff and local farmers and eventually prevent future accidents. The five accidents it assumes are those while driving a tractor, … Continue reading →

IWATE, Mar. 11 – “I’m sorry that only I have survived. I’ve always wanted to say thank you.” People come and talk to the phone in a white fancy phone booth that stands alone on the hilltop in Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture. Inside the booth, there are a black phone and a notebook. Though the phone is connected to nowhere, people come and visit this place to mourn the loss of their loved one after the 2011 massive earthquake hit the Tohoku region of Japan. A boy who lost his parents in their wrecked house and a mother who lost her daughter in the enormous tsunami came here to talk … Continue reading →

Nagano, Feb. 21 – Nagano Prefecture Agricultural Experiment Station has successfully developed a new strain of apple called “Apple Choka 34.” It’s a late-maturing variety that features pink flesh, which is sweet-and-sour and rich in taste. Also, it has a pleasant crispy texture. It’s good not only for table fruit but also for various other purposes, for example, as colorful cut fruits for salad or semi-dried products. With Apple Choka 34, the prefecture expects to create a very new demand that cannot be found with existing varieties. Private breeders and universities have also bred the apples with red or pink flesh, but it was the first time for Nagano to … Continue reading →

Miyazaki Prefecture, Feb. 15 – In Tano Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, sun-dried daikon radishes are almost ready for shipment. Building significant scaffolds called yagura for drying radishes in the sun and the cold wind in winter is a food culture that gives Miyazaki’s signature scenery. Now people have gathered to make “the number one production of sun-dried daikon radishes and daikon yagura towers in Japan” one of the Japanese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Officials of a local agricultural cooperative (JA Miyazaki Chuo), Tano Town Commerce and Industry Association, and Prefecture and Town governments have formed an association, and they are boosting their activities. -Inviting more people for daikon hanging to … Continue reading →

Geneva, Switzerland, Nov, 27 – A Tokyo-based all-round rice producer participated in an international conference on human rights at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 27, 2019, and told the participants that its unique rice processing technology is contributing to the environment and people’s health while helping people to fulfill the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company, Toyo Rice Corporation, says it’s the first Japanese corporation to make a presentation on SDGs at a U.N. meeting. The three-day conference was held on November 25-27, 2019, with approximately 2,000 participants from 190 countries and regions all over the world. According to Toyo Rice, the expansion … Continue reading →