Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

HYOGO, March 31 – A small plant factory is created inside a Japanese sake brewery. Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co., a major sake brewer in Kobe, launched a pilot project on March 2 together with Spice Cube, an Osaka-based indoor cultivation equipment maker, to grow herbs using carbon dioxide produced during the brewing process. The harvested herbs will be used as ingredients to make gin and other products at the brewer. Hakutsuru is aiming at realizing sustainable brewing through adopting such recycling initiatives. The project will run through the end of June at Hakutsuru Sake Craft, a microbrewery that opened in September last year inside Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum in Kobe. … Continue reading →

TOKUSHIMA, Apr. 4 – Approximately 500 weeping sakura cherry blossom trees are in full bloom in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture. The flowers are smaller than usual this year due to a lack of rainfall, but they began to bloom on March 28. Kinichi Sasaki, a 92-year-old sudachi citrus grower, planted the cherry blossom trees covering an approximately 1.5-hectare site. (Sudachi is a small, round, green citrus fruit of Japanese origin and a specialty product of Tokushima Prefecture.) He started planting the trees 18 years ago with only three seedlings of Kamiyama Weeping Cherry Blossoms he received from his friend. Even after he gave up farming due to old age, he … Continue reading →

AKITA, Mar. 29 – The Akita branch of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH Akita) will sell a limited number of Sachihokore finest-quality rice produced in Akita Prefecture in 2-kilogram bags featuring an original illustration by popular illustrator Nagi from Yuzawa City in the prefecture. The rice bag has an illustration of the side face of a young woman and cherry blossoms in full bloom. A person from ZEN-NOH Akita in charge of the unique rice project hopes that consumers will enjoy both Nagi’s illustration and Akita rice. Nagi is popular among young women for her style of drawing many facets of women adorably. So far, she has … Continue reading →

OSAKA, March 11 — Kubota Corp. unveiled on March 10 its versatile autonomous agricultural vehicle to be exhibited at Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai due to open next month. The height and width of the vehicle are adjustable. Using a variety of equipment and implements, a single robot can autonomously handle a wide range of agricultural tasks including tilling, pest control and harvesting, which have traditionally been performed by separate machines. The release date of the robot is yet to be determined, but the firm plans to conduct tests on farmlands and aim at commercializing the product. The robot was shown at an event promoting the Future City pavilion of the … Continue reading →

OSAKA, Mar. 7 – Zojirushi Corporation, which will have an onigiri rice ball shop at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, opening on April 13, unveiled its half-automated onigiri rice ball making system on March 6, The company automated most of onigiri making processes, excluding feeding cocked rice into the tank, putting ingredients, and wrapping. The system was created jointly with Suzumo Machinery Co., Ltd., a supplier of onigiri robots for convenience stores as the first system of this kind to fit in a small room of about 5 square meters. Customers can order onigiri with their favorite ingredients using smartphones that can read a QR code in front of … Continue reading →