Category Archives: Others

Artificial culture of phytoplasma – a pathogenic microorganism that causes a wide variety of symptoms in plants ranging from dwarfing and yellowing to withering – may have become a reality. It has been said that phytoplasmas cannot be grown in axenic culture. But in late April, plant pathologist Kunihei Kishi, 90, presented in the meeting of the Phytopathological Society of Japan that he has succeeded in culturing the microbe in vitro. If the genetic sequence analysis proves the presence of phytoplasmas in the culture fluid, it will be the world’s first successful culture of the organism. Kishi extracted from mulberry trees microorganisms which appear to have caused a phytoplasma-associated disease, … Continue reading →

Farmers of Kumamoto Prefecture are still working to recover, a year after the area was rocked by two powerful earthquakes which marked the highest rating of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. In the Tateno district in the village of Minamiaso, where the large Aso Ohashi bridge collapsed, water supply remains cut off and farmers are having difficulty resuming their business. But earlier this month, one dairy farmer managed to take up farming again. In Tateno, farmlands and water pipes were damaged in the earthquake that hit the region in the early morning of April 16 last year, following one on April 14. Nearly a year after, on April … Continue reading →

In Japan, production of tatami matting (a thin upper portion of a tatami, Japanese traditional flooring panel) is on decrease with the westernization of lifestyle of Japanese people. To save and revive the tatami industry, some efforts are underway. Riding on a Japan boom abroad, domestic tatami manufacturers have launched a new project to communicate the attractiveness of tatami to consumers at home and abroad. An agricultural cooperative in Kumamoto Prefecture (JA Yatsushiro) has begun to look into the feasibility of tatami matting export. Others are trying to develop new materials that make use of the superior properties of rush, the main material used to make tatami, while a farm … Continue reading →

Farmstay is key to make both farmers and travelers happy Staying at farmers’ house is becoming one of the popular options among inbound travelers to Japan as more and more international travelers choose to experience traditional life of Japanese farmers instead of a stay at a city hotel. On March 29, 2017, five students from London Business School (LBS) sat around a kotatsu (a traditional low table with a built-in heater), enjoying dinner and conversation with their host in their 70s, Kaneyoshi and Katsuko Sekiguchi, at their house in Iida city, Nagano Prefecture. During the day, the rice and vegetable grower took the party to his leek field and taught … Continue reading →