Eat and help farmers hit by heavy rain, floods, and landslides in Northern Japan: JA Akita Shinsei

AKITA, Aug. 23 – A Japanese local agricultural cooperative in Akita Prefecture, JA Akita Shinsei, began selling a box of assorted local agricultural products on August 20 to support local farmers hit by heavy rain that caused significant agricultural damages in July. The JA will use 10% of the revenue to support regional farmers. “We’d like to ask consumers to eat more agricultural products to support affected farmers,” a JA staff said. The box contains four packs of precooked Akitakomachi rice (200g), four packs of precooked Hitomebore rice (200g), three servings of Akita Yuri Beef curry sauce, and three bags of Inaniwa Udon noodles made of rice powder (180g). One … Continue reading

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Tochigi works to increase dairy consumption

TOCHIGI, Aug. 18 — The government of Tochigi Prefecture has made August the month to campaign for increased consumption of Tochigi-made milk and dairy products among its residents. Every Friday in August, around 30 officials of the prefectural government’s livestock production promotion division which leads the campaign wear a Holstein pattern shirt to work. They also decorate their laptops with Holstein pattern stickers and send out messages in various places to encourage people to drink milk. Tochigi is Japan’s No. 2 milk producing region after Hokkaido. The Tochigi government launched the campaign to raise people’s awareness of the dairy industry during summer when consumption of milk tends to decline. They … Continue reading

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War witnesses sit in ripe rice fields

KOCHI, Aug. 16 – In Maehama, Nankoku City, Kochi Prefecture, there still are reinforced concrete bomb shelters, called entaigo in Japanese, built in wartime to protect battle plains. The gray ferroconcrete structures were sitting in green ripe rice fields. There are seven entaigo remaining in this area, and the biggest one, the No.4 Entaigo, measures 44 meters in width, 23 meters in depth, and 8.5 meters in height. The dome-shaped structure built to house a two-engine large-sized plane is still partially covered with camouflage soil and grasses. After the war, local farmers started using it to keep agricultural machinery and as a place to work in winter. Shinji Fujimoto is … Continue reading

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Farm-run café in Niigata offers a picturesque view of rice paddies

NIGATA, Aug. 8 — A café run by a farm in the city of Niigata, a major rice growing region, is proving popular due to a picturesque view of rice fields spreading out of its large windows. Roughly 55,000 people a year visit Farmer’s Kitchen Blackbird operated by Kurotori Edamame Laboratory, a farm that cultivates a hectare of wheat and 2.5 hectares of edamame young soybeans. The café has large windows where visitors can enjoy a view of the countryside. “Even the landscapes you see everyday offer different impressions depending on how the views are cropped,” said an official of Kurotori Edamame Laboratory. “Farming is a continuation of unglamorous work, … Continue reading

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Strong high-quality “shamisen” strings developed: NARO and Japanese silken threads maker

SHIGA, Aug. 6 – Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and Marusan Hashimoto Co. (Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture), a Japanese silken thread manufacturer, announced on August 5 a successful joint development of new highly-durable strings for shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument similar to a banjo. The newly-developed strings feature silken threads from cocoons of a new silkworm strain “Kyomei,” a strain known for producing high-strength silken threads. Instrument strings made from silk produce beautiful sounds and resonate well. However, they are weaker and easier to break than resin strings, which are more commonly used. NARO and the thread maker plan to expand the use of silk strings to … Continue reading

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