Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

FUKUI, Jul. 20 – A cherry tomato bears 4,000 fruits at a time, astonishing visitors at a horticulture laboratory, Engei Labo no Oka, in Mihama Town, Fukushima Prefecture. It’s a parthenocarpic breed hydroponically grown in a greenhouse at a temperature of around 25 centigrade. Its main branches reach a frame of 2 meters high and are attached to the frame by strings. Horizontally, it spreads 5 meters in all directions. It’s not just a plant but a tomato “tree.” According to the laboratory, this tomato is expected to bear 20,000 fruits in total by October this year. Engei Labo no Oka started to grow cherry tomato “trees” that bear several … Continue reading →

Hokkaido, Jul. 18 – Hokkaido Prefecture’s 22 agricultural cooperatives (JAs) began exporting sweet potatoes cooperatively. They plan to ship approximately 550 tons a year through a new joint sweet potato sorting facility, one of Japan’s largest, established in the coastal city of Tomakomai by the Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives and a local private company. Their initial primary market is Southeast Asia, where baked sweet potatoes are booming. In the future, they’ll expand the production volume further. The current coverage of the 22 JAs is large, from the northernmost area of Okhotsk to the Southern regions of the island. Their production area has reached 35 hectares, up significantly from 10 … Continue reading →

TOKYO, July 7 — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations announced on July 6 that it has newly designated the fallen leaves compost agroforestry in the Musashino district of Saitama Prefecture and the traditional Tajima cattle raising system in the Mikata district of Hyogo Prefecture as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). The Musashino district composts fallen leaves collected from woods adjacent to agricultural fields to make fertilizers for cultivating sweet potatoes, while the Mikata district hands down the traditional farming method for raising cattle, having established Japan’s first cattle lineage register in 1898. The GIAHS initiative gives recognition to areas which preserve agricultural technologies and landscapes … Continue reading →

NIIGATA, July 3 ― The city of Sado, Niigata Prefecture, was designated as the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2011, the first such case in Japan, for its satoyama landscape where people coexist with endangered Japanese crested ibis, called toki in Japanese. During the 12 years after its designation, how did the city manage to spread agriculture that provide nurturing habitats for crested ibis? How can agriculture and economy be balanced with biodiversity? Many crested ibis can be seen at the Kuninaka Plain, located right in the middle of Sado Island which is shaped like the letter S. It is a densely inhabited area with paddy fields spreading … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jun. 22 – Japan’s exports of apples produced in 2022 (from September 2022 to April 2023) reached 38,554 tons, a record high for the first time in seven years. In value terms, it also hit a record high at 18.89 billion yen. Exports to Taiwan and Hong Kong increased due to weak apple production in the U.S., one of Japan’s competitors. In Taiwan, demands for Japanese apples are growing as gift items and also table fruits. Also, the depreciation of the yen had a favorable impact. According to the finance ministry’s trade statistics, Japan’s apple exports peaked at 36,304 tons in 2015 and have gone sluggish since then due … Continue reading →