Category Archives: Cooperatives

【News】 Carp-shaped streamers fly over rice paddies in cool breeze (May 3, 2015)

Kotaro Yamada – Iki-iki Yamada Koinobori Festival (Katori-shi, Chiba Prefecture) – In late April every year, the village in Katori-shi, Chiba Prefecture, turns colorful with rows of 200 carp-shaped streamers flying over rice paddies and local farmers doing their usual jobs, puddling soil and planting rice. The scene is already one of the early-summer features of the village. “I feel so good when planting rice sometimes looking up at Koinobori,” said Toshihiro Sugaya, 62, as he stopped his hands and smiled. He is a local farmer whose paddies are right under the great Koinobori display. The villagers of Katori-shi or the village previously called Yamada-cho decorate the area with Koinobori streamers … Continue reading

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【Opinion】 Bill to revise farm co-ops law infringes on non-farmer members’ rights (April 20, 2015)

  Masaaki Ishida The goals of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s agricultural co-operatives reform are to dismantle comprehensive business services of the co-ops, just like in the case of postal services. Although primary JAs may look the same on the surface after the reform, their businesses will be split up inside into different organizations such as farm co-ops specializing in sales and purchases, credit and mutual aid agencies and co-operative corporations. An ingenious scheme to lead JAs into overhauling themselves can be seen in the proposal to restrict non-farmer members’ use of JAs’ services. If such a rule is created, JAs’ businesses widely used by non-farmer members, such as credit and … Continue reading

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【News】 Team “Miss ichigo” to share love for strawberry – Group of 15 girls helping strawberry promotions nationwide (April 19, 2015)

Fifteen girls have teamed up as a group to help strawberry promotions all over Japan. The name of the group is “Miss ichigo (Miss Strawberry).” A kick-off meeting was held on April 18, 2015, at a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where the girls thoroughly enjoyed all kinds of strawberry cakes prepared by confectioners. The project is produced by Yutaka Saito, 44, president of Little World Inc. and a planner specialized in the sixtiary sector. At Little World, he organizes events and outlets for food and food distribution services. “We’ll hold events at strawberry farms and deliver video contents featuring Miss ichigo on the Internet in order to add value to strawberries,” he … Continue reading

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【Interview】 Agricultural co-ops group head calls on members to cooperate to conduct reform (April 17, 2015)

President Akria Banzai of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), said in an interview with The Japan Agricultural News he “felt it was necessary to make some kind of a judgement as a leader which accepted an unprecedented transformation,” admitting that he decided to resign after he agreed to the government’s outline of agricultural co-ops reform. He asked his successor to conduct self-reform based on the unity of people, which is the origin of co-operatives. Q. Can you tell us again why you decided to resign? A. I started thinking about it around mid-February, after I accepted the outline of agricultural co-ops reform. I thought one stage came to … Continue reading

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【Editorial】 Rise in retail prices of milk indispensable to maintain domestic dairy industry (April 15, 2015)

  Retail prices of milk after April are a matter of great concern for the dairy industry. As the dairy farmers’ association and major dairy manufacturers agreed on raising the price of raw milk for beverage use by JPY3 per kilogram starting in April, they are wondering whether the retail prices will rise along with it. However, although the price of premium brand milk offered by major dairy manufacturers rose by roughly JPY10 per a one-liter bottle, prices of many other brands remained the same. If retail prices do not properly reflect the rise in raw milk prices, it could threaten dairy farmers to lower the raw milk price again. The dairy industry should work on setting the … Continue reading

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