Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) will develop a new standard for rice flour, which categorizes the flour according to its utility, for the purpose of increasing consumption of rice flour products such as rice-flour cakes, rice-flour noodles and rice-flour bread. The new standard classifies the rice flour into three types according to the components of rice flour, following a general standard of wheat flour such as “low-gluten flour” and “high-gluten flour.” Rice flour packs attached with a new label of three types will debut in the Japanese market. MAFF aims at stimulating new demands for rice flour by enabling consumers to easily select a proper type of … Continue reading →

Japan Rice and Rice Industry Export Promotion Association (JRE) is now planning to take active steps this year to boost exports of Japanese rice and rice products to North American countries in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). JRE, a general incorporation association based at Chuo-ward, Tokyo, is organized by ZENNOH or National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, rice wholesalers and food manufacturers in Japan. JRE’s sales promotion will target at Japanese restaurants and other food service chains in North America, which are expected to increase their purchases of rice produced in Japan. JRE will implement the various export promotion activities including publicity events inviting local … Continue reading →

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) will reinforce its post-disaster reconstruction policy for agricultural production at some areas of Fukushima prefecture in fiscal 2017, which were stricken by the tsunami and TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. MAFF’s budget of 4.7 billion yen will be spent on a new policy program to support recovery of agriculture in the disaster-hit areas. The program supports agriculture in a wide range of fields from production, distribution to marketing, particularly in order to guarantee quality and safety of farm products and improve their brand images. The budget was originally allocated to Reconstruction Agency, while MAFF was authorized to be … Continue reading →

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) plans to start its full-scale studies on how to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture. With the fiscal 2016 supplementary budget, MAFF has launched a study program that teaches AI to remember agricultural techniques of skillful farmers to be followed by agricultural newcomers. In fiscal 2017, MAFF aims at developing an AI technique not only for reducing crop damages caused by insects and diseases, but also for proper farm management. A study on how to improve the accuracy of harvesting robots will also start. These studies of AI application are to be implemented in MAFF’s fiscal 2017 scheme named a “future agriculture … Continue reading →

Japan Livestock Industry Association (JLIA), a public interest incorporated association, has debuted a logo type of Wagyu beef (beef of Japanese cattle) for boosting beef exports to overseas markets. JLIA plans to gain more recognition for beef produced in Japan among consumers in the international market by making application to foreign countries for the trademark registration in January. The new logo type was designed to make an English letter of “Japan” bigger than that in the former type. JLIA’s officials expect that the new logo will be effective for Wagyu beef to avoid being mixed up with “Wagyu beef produced in Australia,” saying “A word of Wagyu has been deleted. … Continue reading →