Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

TOKYO, Sept. 24 — The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), a governmental export agency, has organized a promotional event for Japanese foods in Sydney, aiming at matchmaking Japanese producers with Australian buyers. Baked sweet potatoes, various sake and other products of 20 Japanese food companies were showcased for tasting, according to the JETRO, a subsidiary of Japan’s trade ministry. The event drew about 80 commercial buyers, distributors and restaurants in Australia’s capital. The objective is to make Japanese food producers and farmers — located mostly in rural areas — have access to marketing and distribution channels of foreign buyers. But the event caters not just to Japanese producers, but also … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Sept. 16 — Japan will open the agricultural sector’s jobs to foreigners in the deregulation-friendly strategic special zones, aimed at providing a solution to the sector’s widespread labor shortage. The Cabinet approved Sept. 15 the revised strategic special zone law. It stipulates what foreign workers can do now in the farming industry in Japan; producing organic fertilizers and feeds, transporting and selling agricultural and processed products. This provides more flexibility, compared with the current three-year training program. To be eligible to work for a total of three years, foreign workers must be aged over 18 and have experience working for a farm business more than a year. It also … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Sept. 16 — Prosciutto di Parma Ham, one of Italian delicacies, has been registered in Japan’s geographical indications (GI) protection system. This is the first foreign celebrated food designated as a GI in Japan. It becomes one of 42 agriculture products that have been registered for GI protection in Japan, according to the agriculture ministry. Japan introduced the GI system in 2015. The move comes as a political agreement on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was reached in July, which includes a provision of GI. GI is a rule that requires agriculture products to come from a particular geographical area and it must meet various quality criteria in … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Sept. 23 – As some domestically-developed strawberry varieties are being produced in other Asian countries without permission, Japanese authorities are stepping up measures to protect the varieties. The Shizuoka Prefectural Government is working to register Kirapika, a new strawberry variety developed in the prefecture, in China, South Korea and Taiwan. Kirapika was registered in Japan this year after 17 years of development, and the prefecture plans to increase its production with the aim of making it the leading brand of Shizuoka which ranks fourth in Japan in terms of strawberry production volume. The prefecture is rushing to register the variety abroad, as it learned a bitter lesson from the … Continue reading →