Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

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 →

KOCHI, March 2 — Shipments of Tosa Buntan pomelos grown outdoors are in full swing in Tosa, Kochi Prefecture. Farms’ work areas and fruit sorting facilities are filled with liveliness of workers and the fresh scent of the citrus fruit that signals the coming of spring. The city of Tosa is where the pomelos were born and it is also the nation’s top producing area of the fruit. In the city, the fruit is cultivated by 94 farms that belong to the Tosa Buntan growers’ group of JA Kochi, a local agricultural cooperative. Tosa Buntan pomelos are harvested between December and January. They are then kept outside in temporary storage … Continue reading →

The production of arare, a type of Japanese cracker made from glutinous rice, is now at its peak in Miyako Town, Fukuoka Prefecture. A 54-year-old farmer, Miyuki Tominaga, was drying colorful bite-sized rice crackers in her workspace. She uses home-grown Hiyoku Mochi glutinous rice and about 10 different ingredients, including ginger, red perilla, and green laver, to add colors and flavors. Arare is everyone’s favorite winter snack, which is eaten baked and fried. It takes about a month to dry and then ship. Her arare is sold primarily at a farmers’ market run by a local agricultural cooperative in Fukuoka, JA Fukuoka Keichiku. Tominaga began full-scale production of arare five … Continue reading →

EHIME, Feb. 12 — Full-scale sales of Beni Princess, a new citrus fruit variety developed by Ehime Prefecture, will start in March. The Ehime Prefectural Government hopes to promote the variety as the Beni collection, together with the highly popular citrus varieties Beni Madonna and Beni Kanpei. Beni Princess was created by combining Ehime-grown Beni Madonna and Kanpei. It took Ehime Prefecture 20 years to develop the new variety from cross-breeding to full-scale sales. It is characterized by the jelly-like texture of Beni Madonna and the rich sweetness of Kanpei. At a debut event held in Tokyo on Feb. 11, Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura said, “Beni Princess has all the … Continue reading →