Category Archives: Others

An increasing number of local governments are turning to YouTubers – people who make money by creating online videos – to promote their local specialties and tourist spots. Some videos by popular YouTubers have attracted more than 1 million views, showing the power of social media in marketing efforts targeted at young people. The city of Iki located in Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture posted a video on YouTube in December 2016 to promote local specialties such as Iki wagyu beef and sea urchins, the products that are offered as gifts to people who donated money to the city under the hometown donation system. Yuka Kinoshita, 32, a popular YouTuber … Continue reading →

Billowing black smoke, a steam locomotive pulling passenger cars ran through the rice fields in the Aizu Basin in Fukushima Prefecture on May 20, as the region entered a rice planting season. The locomotive, named Shinryoku meaning fresh verdure in Japanese, carried 250 passengers for a 60-kilometer, two-and-a-half-hour ride between Aizuwakamatsu and Aizukawaguchi stations of JR Tadami Line, as a part of a special event held over the weekend to ride on the train. The train passed by the shining water-filled paddy fields reflecting the early summer sky, blowing steam whistles as it wound through the basin known as the major production area of rice varieties such as Koshihikari, Hitomebore … Continue reading →

Five teachers of agricultural high schools will leave Tokyo on May 29 for Paris to visit agricultural high schools in France in a one-week itinerary. These teachers have been selected from among 40 applicants to an interaction program that is first sponsored by the government of France aiming at promoting exchanges of agriculture-related persons between France and Japan on a long-term basis. The Japanese governmental agencies, especially the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) have been cooperative with the French government sponsoring this new project. The participants in the one-week trip to France plan to visit three agricultural … Continue reading →

A new uniquely-shaped animal scarer with gleaming eyes and terrifying roars is now being tested in a fruit farmer in Sapporo city, Hokkaido. The scarer looks so much like a wolf and is named “Monster Wolf.” The “wolf” was developed by Ota Seiki Co., Ltd., a machine parts manufacturer in Naie town, Hokkaido, in order to keep animals like deer and bears away from the farms especially at night. The wolf-like scarer measures 60 centimeters in length. The gleaming eyes are made of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the sounds are provided by a speaker embedded in its head. It turns on and produces approximately 40 different roaring sounds to scare … Continue reading →