Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

GIFU, Sept. 16 ― The Gifu prefectural government said on Sept. 15 that the carcass of a wild boar found in Gifu city in earlier September was tested positive for classical swine fever, also known as hog cholera. The announced came as the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) confirmed swine fever virus in the final analysis. The swine fever is unrelated to the African swine fever that has broken out in China and other countries in Easter Europe. Swine fever occurs among pigs and wild boar and is not infectious to humans, but it can be devastating the pork industry because pork sales would be severely disrupted. The … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 31 ― Japanese and Chinese agriculture ministries have held a senior official meeting to discuss over farm issues, ranging from China’s import bans on Japanese farm products and recent outbreaks of deadly African swine fever in China. The high-level meeting took place on Aug. 30, the first time in two years and half. Such meetings have been disrupted by territorial disputes between the two countries. During the meeting, Japanese officials asked Chinese counterparts to lift import restrictions on foods from Japan, which have been placed in after the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, informed sources said. In the wake of the disaster, China has imposed bans … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 24 ― Japan’s agriculture ministry has finalized its request budges on agriculture for fiscal 2019, highlighting a big boost in farm land improvement at 530.5 billion yen. The chairman of the National Federation of Land improvement Association is Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The budget request also includes 5 billion yen in the development of AI, or technologies which perform tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence in the sector. The request on agriculture-related budgets for the fiscal year starting from April 2019 totals 2.727 trillion yen. That was up by 74.4 billion yen from its budget request for fiscal … Continue reading →

GIFU, Sept. 11 – The Gifu Prefectural Government announced on Sept. 9 that it has confirmed the nation’s first case of swine fever in 26 years at a farm in the city of Gifu. The culling and burying of 610 hogs at the farm were completed in the early morning of Sept. 10, and the place was decontaminated and disinfected by Sept. 11, the government said. It is yet unknown how the outbreak of the disease, also known as hog cholera, started. It differs from African swine fever which has been reported recently in China. Both diseases cannot infect humans and people are not affected even if meat from an … Continue reading →