“No price war!” Japanese winemakers say removing tariffs on European wines will harm agricultural industry and tourism in Nagano Prefecture

NAGANO, June 24 —  The Japan-Europe EPA talks regarding a plan to cut tariffs on European wine have emerged, raising tensions in wine producing regions in Japan. “Authentic” wines from Europe with high brand power inevitably compete with Japanese wines price wise, and an increase in European wine import may shave the demand for domestically-made alcoholic beverages such as Japanese sake and shochu (locally-distilled spirits) as well in the country with the nation drinking increasingly less alcohol. Japanese wine producers have been placing extremely high expectations on the role of Japanese wines in the development of the sixth industrialization for an increase in agricultural income. The domestic wines are already … Continue reading

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Japan’ small and family farms are disappearing, survey shows

TOKYO, July 3 — Small-scale and family farms are rapidly disappearing in Japan due to the rising number of aging farmers, while fewer young people opt for farming careers, a survey by the agriculture ministry shows. Farm numbers fell 4.6% to 1.26 million farms in 2017 from a year earlier and overall family farms recorded a decline, down 4.8% to 1.22 million. However, the number of corporate farms grew 5% to 22,000. In the last five years, their number has jumped 55%, reinforcing the trend of bigger and fewer farms through the government’s structural reform program. The survey also showed the size structures of farms are changing. Smaller holdings of … Continue reading

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Japan declares itself free of avian flu; surveillance to continue

TOKYO, June 29 — Japan has declared itself free of highly contagious avian flu as of June 28 and notified the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Avian flu is a rapidly spreading viral disease that can infect many types of birds. Japan’s agriculture ministry will accelerate talks with the countries to ask them to lift a trade ban they imposed on imports of Japanese poultry products from the start of the outbreak. Between last November and March this year, the avian flu virus struck 12 farms in 9 prefectures: Aomori, Niigata, Hokkaido, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Gifu, Saga, Miyagi, Chiba. The government took various measures to contain the avian flu … Continue reading

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Japan’s LDP presses gov’t to keep farm tariffs in JP-EU deals

TOKYO, July 1 — Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has given a set of final recommendations to the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seen as a last chance to press for keeping tariffs for sensitive agricultural products, before Japan and the EU’s sealing an overall trade deal. Meanwhile, Japan and EU held a ministerial meeting in Tokyo on the same day, June 30. Agriculture Minister Yuji Yamamoto met EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan to resolve key outstanding issues such as Japanese agriculture market access. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was to meet with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels on July … Continue reading

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Japan-EU trade talks continuing with Japan’s export of green tea and wine in focus

TOKYO, June 23 – European Union’s regulations on Japan’s export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products to the European bloc are now crucial issues in Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) discussions. The trade talks currently affirm the removal of EU tariffs on Japanese wine, green tea, and some other agricultural products. However, just abolishing the taxes will not be enough to support the expansion of the export from Japan, unless regulations restricting export of those products are mitigated or eliminated. Japan sees the tariffs on Japanese food are one of the key issues in the area of the agricultural, forestry and fishery products. It has requested the bloc to remove … Continue reading

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