Category Archives: Farm Policy

GUNMA, Jun. 4 – On June 2, in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, five married couples participated in a joint wedding ceremony followed by a mud run in their wedding attire at a rice field. Approximately 1,300 guests celebrated the couples with big smiles and clapping as the brides’ pure white wedding dresses turned “colored” in the mud. This event was part of the 19th Yoshii Mud Festival, which aimed to strengthen community bonds between parents and children. One of the organizers, Shigenari Okabe (69), proposed holding the wedding ceremony for couples who were already married but had not held their ceremonies. The couples who participated in activities headed to the … Continue reading →

TOKYO, June 5 — A contest for artworks depicting dairy cows created with the use of artificial intelligence image generators was held in Japan to commemorate World Milk Day on June 1. In the contest, organized by Noujoujin, an agriculture branding service firm based in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, the top prize was awarded to an artwork by Tetsuya Kawakami, 37, a dairy farmer of Izumo, Shimane Prefecture. Kawakami’s work portrays a design of a cow along with red, orange and yellow flowers and plants. He instructed AI to include not only a dairy cow but also farm produce so that people who look at the work will understand how the … Continue reading →

NIIGATA, May 27 — The 27th national bullfighting summit was held on May 26 in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, with 28 bulls clashing their horns at the Yamakoshi Bullfighting Arena before an audience of some 1,100 people. Nagaoka Mayor Tatsunobu Isoda, who heads the event’s organizing council, said, “It is 20 years since the entire population of the village of Yamakoshi was evacuated following the (2004) Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake. We want to show how the area has been restored by the passion of the local community and those who provided support so that we can offer strong hope to people in other disaster-hit areas.” The village of Yamakoshi became part of … Continue reading →

TOCHIGI, May 19 — As Japan entered the rice planting season, an agricultural robot is busy laying trays containing rice seedlings in a greenhouse in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture. Agurobo, developed nearly 30 years ago as a cutting-edge robot, can carry a total of 20 seedling trays on its two arms and place them all at once. According to the robot’s manufacturer Suzutec, only two of such robots are still in operation within Japan. The robot has greatly supported the scale expansion of rice farming in the country by automating the labor-intensive work of placing seedling trays. Kanuma, an agricultural production corporation in the city of Kanuma, cultivates rice on a … Continue reading →

TOKYO, May 10 – The Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-Zenchu) announced on May 9 a collaboration with the action role-playing game “Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin” (“Tensui no Sakuna Hime” in Japanese), whose TV anime adoption was announced in March. The official account on X (ex-Twitter) of the anime program will post pictures of their challenge to grow rice using the unique ‘bucket rice growing kit’ provided by the JA group. JA is also running a campaign for you to win exclusive bucket rice sets and special stickers to offer anime fans a unique experience of growing rice at home. “Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin” is a popular action … Continue reading →