Category Archives: Others

TOKYO, Aug. 26 ─ Estimates of agricultural losses caused by heavy rainfall this summer in Japan have risen to 103 billion yen, according to the agriculture ministry. The early estimates in July were about 33 billion yen worth of damages to the farming industry. Based on current information, the loss estimates considered are: farming land and facilities, 56 billion yen; forest crops, 40 billion; agriculture products, 7 billion. The deluge had devastating effects on farmers in affected areas, especially the southern island of Kyushu that was hardest hit after huge floods wrecked hundreds of houses, roads and rice fields. The ministry has announced that it will apply a new farm … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 24 – Thirty-three percent of respondents of The Japan Agricultural News survey supported Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, while 67 percent said they don’t support the administration, the highest disapproval rate since Abe came into power in 2012. As the reason for not supporting the Abe administration, the largest percentage of people – nearly 60 percent – gave their distrust for Abe, apparently having in mind the government’s eagerness to conduct drastic overhaul of the agriculture industry and the lack of sufficient explanation regarding a controversial approval of a new veterinary department by school operator Kake Gauen. The survey was conducted in August on 511 readers of The … Continue reading →

TOKYO, July 26 — Heavy rain and flooding across Japan in July have caused about 33.2 billion yen worth of damage to the farming industry, the Japanese agriculture ministry has said. The southern island of Kyushu was hardest hit by the torrential rain, which killed at least 20 people and forced more than 400,000 people from their homes at the peak of the rain after huge floods wrecked hundreds of houses, roads and rice fields. The ministry announced July 25 that it will apply a new farm recovery scheme that relaxes inspection requirements on farmers in flood-hit areas to help them to restore damaged agricultural land and drainage as quickly … Continue reading →

[By Masaru Kaneko, Professor of Keio University] Japan and the European Union recently reached a basic accord regarding the Economic Partnership Agreement. However, although the deal includes decisions that could hit much harder on domestic farmers than the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the negotiations were all held behind closed doors with barely any debate conducted on the issue. The government appears to believe that no further debate on the TPP agreement is necessary since it is already approved by the Diet, but it is a great mistake to think so. Impact of EPA greater than TPP Concerning dairy products, the Japanese government made concessions in the EPA which are even greater … Continue reading →