Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

Tohoku Agricultural Research Center operated by National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (TARC/NARO), based at Morioka city in Iwate prefecture, was recently successful in devising a simple method for preparing feedstuff of unhulled rice soft-grain-silage (SGS) to reduce working hours to less than half the existing method. It is a new method for preparing the rice SGS feed by wrapping the whole bulk bag, called a flexible container, of raw materials or feed rice grains. At a stage of wrapping the bulk container, procedures of deflating and sealing the container take a lot of time in an existing method, which works are not required in the new method. It will … Continue reading →

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) made an announcement on September 30 that it will be possible for travelers visiting Singapore, including inbound tourists returning to the country, to carry fresh hen eggs produced in Japan with them as their souvenirs from October 1. Commercial exports of the Japanese eggs for sales to Singapore have already been allowed. And it is now approved to bring those eggs for personal consumption from Japan to Singapore, if they are labelled with a carry-on certificate issued by MAFF’s Animal Quarantine Service. The animal quarantine offices of Japan and Singapore have allowed international tourists to bring Japanese beef into Singapore as a … Continue reading →

The nationwide rice crop index stood at 103 as of September 15, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on September 30. Yields of rice produced in the current year are regarded as “slightly better” than an average crop index of 100 for the first time in three years. Niigata prefecture hit the highest index of 108 among 47 prefectures in the country. As for a regional crop index, the Hokuriku region including Niigata prefecture, located in the northwestern part of the main island of Japan, recorded the highest index of 107, followed by 103 of the Hokkaido region and 102 of the Tohoku region. Farmers could enjoy … Continue reading →

Gurunavi, Inc., operating an online restaurant search site called Japan Restaurant Guide at Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, has conducted a survey on spending habits of international tourists visiting Japan. The survey was responded by 422 Gurunavi member restaurants across the country. According to results of the survey, more than 80 percent of those restaurants received guests from overseas during past twelve months. Most of the restaurants, particularly Yakinikuya Japanese BBQ restaurants, have a strong tendency to increase foreign guests. Spending habits of Chinese tourists have been shifting from shopping of goods made in Japan to dining of Japanese cuisine. It is expected that Chinese tourists will increasingly visit Japanese restaurants in October … Continue reading →

FUJI KEIZAI, CO., LTD, a marketing research and consulting group based at Chuo-ku, Tokyo, recently released a report that highlighted a 23.4% increase in sales of high-quality hamburgers in 2015 over the previous year. The Japanese market of premium burgers, most of which are being sold for around 1000 to 1500 yen, grew to as much as 5.8 billion yen last year. US popular hamburger restaurants joined the Japanese market one after another in 2015, where Japanese competitors of chain shops have turned to increasingly introduce a premium line of burgers. According to the FUJI KEIZAI, the Japanese market of hamburger is continuing to grow because of its topicality and … Continue reading →