Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

People of an agricultural cooperative (JA) group are growing a strong interest in a hands-on farm, which, they recognize, is an important tool for facilitating development of agriculture in urban areas. JA-ZENCHU (Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives) or JAs’ apex body in Japan recently printed an additional 500 copies of a handbook for opening hands-on farms, since a flood of orders have poured on to deplete the stock of the books. One thousand copies of the handbook had been originally printed for staff members of JAs and their prefectural unions. The handbook is increasingly used not only at JAs located in urban areas, but also at JAs in rural regions. … Continue reading →

ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association) or a national business organization of agricultural cooperatives (JAs) held a national convention of farm management advisors of agricultural cooperatives, who are called “Team for Agricultural Coordination” or TAC providing guidance to core farmers through maintaining face-to-face interactions with those farmers, at Yokohama city on November 17. Some 580 members of TACs and directors of agricultural cooperatives come to Yokohama from various part of Japan to join the national convention named “2016 Convention for TAC Power-up.” At a ceremony of the convention, Kitabiwako Agricultural Cooperative in Shiga prefecture received ZEN-NOH president’s award, a supreme award for the most excellent TAC team of the … Continue reading →

The Agriculture and Forestry Division of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and LDP’s agricultural caucuses held a joint meeting on November 17 to discuss how to handle a radical proposal on agricultural reform, which was made on November 7 by an agricultural working group of Government’s advisory panel named as the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform. LDP lawmakers’ objections and angers against the proposal erupted at the meeting. They fiercely opposed the proposal because it could interfere in business activities of the private sector. A number of LDP’s agricultural caucus members urged that their ruling party should put forward its own proposal on the agricultural reform. It is … Continue reading →

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) started its full-scale discussions on agricultural reform on November 14 so that LDP could put forward its own proposal by the end of November. On November 11, an agricultural working group of the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform, Government’s advisory panel, announced its proposal on the agricultural reform, including a radical idea of abolishing a so-called consignment marketing system of ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association) or a national business organization of agricultural cooperatives (JAs). The focus of LDP’s discussions will be how to finally seek for their own conclusion of an agricultural reform scheme on the basis of real conditions of … Continue reading →