Category Archives: Others

Japan aims to boost wild game meat sales to cut crop damage

TOKYO, Feb. 11 — Looking for deer meat on sale in Japan? Game meat is famous for being low in fat but high in nutrition. But in Japan, people seldom eat it, so the meat of captured wild animals usually ends up being buried or incinerated. Japan sold 1,283 metric tons of wild game meat in 2016, valued at 3 billion yen, the agriculture ministry said. The ministry initiated hearings from butchering facilities that slaughter wild boar and deer killed by hunters. It said game meats sold to restaurants totaled 1,015 metric tons, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the overall sales. Others were sold as food for domestic animals … Continue reading

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Kasumi Ishikawa visits ZEN-NOH, says “I particularly enjoy eating rice overseas!”

TOKYO, Feb. 8 – Kasumi Ishikawa, a professional table tennis player and a member of the table tennis club of National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH), visited the ZEN-NOH office in Otemachi, Tokyo, on February 7 to update her activities. “I enjoy eating rice after the games overseas,” she said while speaking about what she eats before the games and while traveling overseas. Ishikawa also added that she always bring a rice cooker with her when she goes abroad to play games and that she pays attention to eating a lot of well-balanced food after the games as she loses weight from playing hard. “I’m thankful to ZEN-NOH for … Continue reading

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Japan’s land with unknown owners to reach 7.2mln ha by 2040

TOKYO, Oct. 27 — A glut of property whose owners are unknown could take up some 7.2 million hectares by 2040 in Japan, a governmental group’s study has shown. That area is nearly as big as the whole of the northern island of Hokkaido, said an expert group on unclaimed property set up by the Japanese government at an Oct. 26 press conference. The group pointed out the growing presence of such properties will impede collection of asset taxes by local authorities as well as hamper public work construction and government projects such as consolidation of farmland. As of now, there is an estimated 4.1 million ha of property with … Continue reading

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Farmers in Tateno, Minamiaso, still unable to resume business 1.5 years after Kumamoto earthquakes

KUMAMOTO, Oct. 18 – In the Tateno district in the village of Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, farmers are still having difficulties resuming their business even 1.5 years after the destructive earthquakes in April 2016. Reconstruction efforts have been successfully made to recover water supply and rebuild new roads gradually, but most of the farmers in the region are still not able to resume their business back in their farmlands. Lack of construction vendors The Tateno district was severely hit by the earthquakes on April 16, 2016, with its most evident damage on the large Aso Ohashi bridge. Currently, the rice fields and other farmlands close to the collapsed bridge are filled … Continue reading

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App developed to estimate weight of pigs from their images

TOKYO, Oct. 4 – Livestock feed maker Itochu Feed Mills Co., Ltd. and IT firm NTT TechnoCross Corporation have jointly developed an application which calculates an estimated weight of pigs from their images captured by smartphones and tablet computers. Determining the weight of pigs before shipment is important because pork carcass quality is first classified by weight and a carcass’ ranking will drop if it weighed below or above the standard. Developers believe the new app can help reduce the burden on pig breeders, as more farms are increasing the number of pigs they raise and weighing them using a scale is becoming an exhausting work. A user can photograph … Continue reading

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