Premium Japan Farmers Market opens at Changi Airport, Singapore, on September 22

TOKYO, Sept. 16 — A grocery store specialized in Japanese agricultural products and processed food opened on September 22, 2017, at one of the largest international airports in Asia, Changi Airport in Singapore. Its products are supplied by Zen-Noh International, a leading exporter of Japanese agriproducts and a subsidiary of National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH). The store sells beef, fruits, and Japanese sake as well as ready-to-eat boxed lunch, called bento, with side dishes cooked using Japanese agriproducts. The shop is expected to give a boost to the expansion of the export of agricultural products from Japan. The store opening was announced on September 15 by Zen-Noh International and … Continue reading

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Taiwan lifts ban on Japanese beef import, Japan’s Farm Ministry shows expectation for early resumption

TOKYO, Sept. 20 — As of September 18, 2017, the Taiwanese government has lifted a ban on beef imports from Japan and ended the 16-year-old restriction imposed in 2001 following an outbreak of BSE or mad cow disease in Japan. The beef from Japan must come from cattle under 30 months old, according to the authorities, but the conditional deregulation is likely to add a new momentum to the growth of Japanese beef export, considering beef consumption in Taiwan is growing and dishes using Japanese beef is getting more popular among Taiwanese tourists to Japan. Japan still has to wait for the Taiwan government’s approvals for its export facilities, and … Continue reading

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US ambassador urges Japan to review frozen beef safeguard

TOKYO, Sept. 13 — A top U.S. official has urged Japan to review the special safeguard (SSG) measure that Tokyo imposed on frozen beef imports in August. “I strongly raised the issue,” U.S. Ambassador William Hagerty told reporters in Tokyo after meeting Japanese Agriculture Minister Ken Saito on Sept. 12. The U.S. and Australia account for nearly 90 percent of Japan’s frozen beef imports, but the measure affects only the U.S. because it doesn’t have a free trade agreement with Japan. U.S. officials and meat exporters have criticized the trade remedy as an artificial barrier, and the issue is likely to be taken up at a second round of the … Continue reading

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Japan to boost support additive/pesticide registers overseas

TOKYO, Sept. 8 — Japan’s agriculture ministry will boost financial assistance to help food producers, who use pesticides and food additives that are not regulated in foreign markets, to prove their products are safe through their own private risk assessment. The agriculture ministry is now seeking to triple the budget to 600 million yen in the fiscal year beginning next April. It aims to accelerate Japanese food exporters’ registration for their pesticides and food additives overseas so that they have access to foreign markets. The budget request comes as Japan has set a target to boost the annual value of agricultural exports to 1 trillion yen by 2020. Japanese food … Continue reading

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【Research】Year 2016 Marks a Turnaround for Japan’s Financial Policy — Highlights of Japanese retail investors’ markets

January 1st, 2017 Norinchukin Research Institute Co., Ltd. SHIGETO Yukari, Senior Chief Researcher ■Abstract The Bank of Japan (BOJ) made an unprecedented move towards negative interest rates in January 2016 in an attempt to invigorate the economy. This caused Japan’s household financial assets to dip 0.4% in March from a year earlier, their first decline since September 2009. They fell a further 1.7% in June, accelerating the pace of decline. The introduction of negative interest rates also eroded Japanese banks’ profitability from lending and investing in securities. In the first half of fiscal 2016, 47 out of 64 regional banks reported declines in net income, and 38 of them recorded … Continue reading

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