Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is finalizing its outline request for agriculture, forestry and fisheries-related budgets for FY 2017. The amount of MAFF’s estimated budget request for the next fiscal year totals 2.635 trillion yen, 14 percent up on its budget allocated for FY 2016, while it is almost similar to its budget request for FY 2016. Stakeholders will shift their focus to how the MAFF’s budget request will be met at the final budget compilation this December. MAFF requests the Ministry of Finance to allocate a farm land improvement budget of 355.5 billion yen for its agriculture and rural society consolidation projects, 20 percent more than … Continue reading →

A private research company revealed a report that 51 percent of consumers ate or drank yogurt or yogurt drinks during past twelve months, expecting their publicized health benefits. The new food labelling system named as “Foods with Function Claims,” which was launched last year, has been giving a push to boosted consumption of the yogurt products. It is expected that product development of yogurt will be further activated in the coming years. ANTERIO Inc., one of the leading companies in the field of marketing researches especially on health-care products, based at Chiyoda-ku Tokyo, conducted a health care survey with postal questionnaires sent to 2300 consumers aged 16-69 in the country. … Continue reading →

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held a tasting event of ice cream made with an ingredient of extremely rare onions called “Sapporo Yellow” at its headquarter in Tokyo on August 22. The production of “Sapporo Yellow” originated at Higashi-ku, Sapporo in Hokkaido. The onions of “Sapporo Yellow” are still produced only by a small number of farmers in the Higashi-ku area of Sapporo city. These farmers have worked together with local store owners in manufacturing special ice cream with the ingredient of “Sapporo Yellow.” The manufacturer of the ice cream made good use of a rich taste and flavor of the onion. Leaders of LDP’s Agriculture and Forestry Division … Continue reading →

Rice flour has been increasingly used as weaning food in Kumamoto prefecture, since a number of parenting mothers found out its characteristic features that it is not only an allergy-free food, but also can be easily cooked. The ingredient of rice flour is used for preparing various dishes including a soup or source thickened with the flour and instant rice porridge. At the shelters for earthquake’s victims in the Kumamoto region, the rice flour played an active part as an emergency food for babies and infants. Their lives have been saved with the flour particularly where relief goods were less supplied. An idea of using the rice flour as weaning … Continue reading →