Category Archives: Farm Policy

TOKYO, Jan. 25 — As tourists from the Asian region including China are set to increase during the Lunar New Year holidays, the Animal Quarantine Service and the Plant Protection Station of Japan’s agriculture ministry launched a campaign at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan. 24 to prevent entries of animal and plant diseases such as African swine fever and fire blight. Officers handed to foreign visitors and others some 550 pocket tissues containing flyers saying that people entering Japan are banned from bringing meat products and that there are plants which cannot be brought in to the country and plants which require a phytosanitary certificate to import. African swine fever … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jan. 24  – The products featured in the series of Isson Ippin articles in the Japan Agricultural News (in Japanese) are now available at an online farmers market portal run by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH), the JA Town. On January 24, the JA Town opened an event website to market processed agricultural products highlighted in the series to introduce, each time, one excellent product (Ippin) from one village (Isson) in Japan. The shop sells some of the Isson Ippin grand and gold prize winners in 2005 through 2024. The merchandise include the 2022 Grand Prize winner, Takasaki Fresh Pasta from JA Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture, … Continue reading →

Meet this big mama pig and piglets in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. An artist and volunteers, nearly 100 in total, came together to make this gigantic straw sculpture using rice straw supplied by a farmer in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. It took 1.5 months for them to complete it. It is part of “Shoku-to-Ikiru (Living with Food),” an event to provoke interest in food-related social issues, such as food waste and vanishing regional food culture. The sculpture, measuring six meters in length, two meters in width, and three meters in height, was created by a 48-year-old artist, Yuma Matsumoto, under the theme of “Mother’s Milk.” It has … Continue reading →

GUNMA, Dec. 31 – The year 2025 is the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac, and in Minakami Town, Gunma Prefecture, a giant snake made of rice straw welcomes visitors again at Michi-no-Eki Takumi-no-Sato, one of Japan’s roadside stations. The straw snake, measuring 7 meters in length and 1.8 meters in height, is built on a bamboo and wooden frame using rice straw grown locally in rice fields of approximately 1,000 square meters. It took approximately 3 weeks for local farmers and carpenters to make and prepare it for the start of display in November. On busy days, the roadside station has approximately 4,000 visitors who enjoy looking … Continue reading →

SAITAMA, Dec. 22 – On December 21, in Ogose Town, Saitama Prefecture, visitors at a local spa resort, O Park Ogose, enjoyed a yuzu bath, a bathing tradition celebrated on the winter solstice in Japan. The spa put yuzu citrus fruits grown in Saitama in a tub so that visitors could release the weariness of the past year while enjoying the rich aroma of yuzu. The spa had a campaign to offer a free entry ticket in exchange for 2 kilograms of yuzu fruits and gathered 13 kilograms of yuzu from its neighbors by December 21. It puts them in its open-air spas. The spa will continue offering a yuzu … Continue reading →