Category Archives: Photos

Jewelry born from agriculture-welfare collaboration

NAGASAKI, Dec. 10 – “Sakura+ (sakura plus),” a vocational support center for persons with disabilities in Omura City, Nagasaki Prefecture, is making flower resin jewelry using locally-produced carnations. Several local corporations are placing orders for the attractive regional products. Sakura+ purchases carnations directly from local growers and places them in silica gel to make colorful dried flowers. Then, it casts the flowers in resin using molds and polishes to produce authentic flower accessories. Responding to new orders, Sakura+ expanded the lineup to include brooches, for example. So far, it has received orders for more than 300 products. The vocational training center began making items using agricultural products approximately two years … Continue reading

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Gem of the region: wind-hanging persimmons of Hata, Higashi Izumo, Shimane Prefecture

SHIMANE, Dec. 4 – Hata Region in Higashi Izumo Town, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, is in the busiest season for producing Maruhata Hoshi-Gaki (Maruhata-brand dried persimmons). Sheds dedicated to drying persimmons, called kaki-goya in Japanese, are filled with curtains of yellow-red persimmons dancing in the wind. A 75-year-old farmer and owner of a shed, Chie Morihiro, sorts and peels locally-produced persimmons on the first floor and hangs them in the well-ventilated rooms on the second and third floors. She processes approximately 1,300 persimmons a day. She carefully controls the rooms’ moisture by opening and closing the windows to air dry the fruits for about a month until they turn light … Continue reading

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The wisdom of steep-slope cultivation handed down in the Nishi-Awa area in southwest Japan

TOKUSHIMA, Dec. 4 — The Nishi-Awa area in the western part of Tokushima Prefecture is surrounded by steep mountains at high altitudes of between 100 and 1,000 meters above sea level, and the slopes are so steep that a unique farming method has been adopted to cultivate them as they are instead of converting them into terraced fields. The unique techniques and wisdom have been handed down for more than 400 years to grow indigenous varieties of buckwheat and millet. In March 2018, the steep slope land agricultural system of Nishi-Awa was designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United … Continue reading

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Japan’s longest windbreak forest turns gold as leaves change color

HOKKAIDO, Nov. 7 — A bright golden line of trees stands out against green wheat fields and brown Chinese yam fields in the town of Memuro, Hokkaido, as larches and Sakhalin spruces which make up Japan’s longest windbreak forest are turning color. The 9.2-kilometer-long, 65-meter-wide forest, located west of Prefectural Route 62, was designated by the central government as a windbreak forest in 1922. The forest helps weaken the strong winds descending the Hidaka Mountain Range and reduce the impact of the winds blowing away or drying the soil. A farmer who conducts crop rotation near the windbreak, growing wheat and beets, says the forest protects the crops from being … Continue reading

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Broccoli! Nutritious and photogenic!

HYOGO, Oct. 22 – A gigantic broccoli welcomes visitors to Kobe at the observation deck of Kobe Airport in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. It’s a 3-meter-tall 500-kilogram artwork named “Broccoli” made of fiber-reinforced plastic. It was made in 2022, inspired by one of the miniature creations of a Japanese photographer. Today, it’s a famous photo spot. Kobe city has approximately 66 hectares of fields producing broccoli. “We want people to learn about our locally produced broccoli and eat it after seeing this,” a Kobe City government official said. “This is so big. We are surprised,” a mother and her daughter from Ono City, Hyogo Prefecture, said.

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