【News】 Lower House approves TPP agreement & related bills: Shinzo Abe’ Administration and ruling parties persistent in ratification at current Diet session (Nov. 11, 2016)

The House of Representatives passed a proposal to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement and approved TPP related bills at its plenary session held on November 10. Those TPP bills cleared the House with support from the ruling parties and the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai. Lawmakers of the Democratic Party and other two opposition parties walked out of the assembly hall to protest against rapid ratification of the TPP pact. The ruling bloc plans to extend the current extraordinary Diet session, which is set to end on November 30, so as to ensure that the House of Councilors will also ratify the TPP pact by the end … Continue reading

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【Focus】Government panel proposal focus on weakening agricultural cooperatives (Nov. 12, 2016)

The proposals on agricultural cooperatives, released on Friday, Nov. 11, by the government’s Regulatory Reform Promotion Council, are apparently targeted at shifting focus of debate on agricultural coops reform back to drastic dismantling of the farm coops group which hit the headlines two years before. The key points of the proposals include abolishing the system of farmers entrusting sales of their products to the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH) and transferring primary farm coops (JAs)’ financial business to Norinchukin Bank. Such measures could threaten agricultural cooperatives’ businesses and do not in any way lead to realizing the initial aim of agricultural coops reform, which is to boost agricultural … Continue reading

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【News】 Government’s reform promotion council calls on agricultural cooperatives to scale down operations by “withdrawing” from credit and input supply businesses (Nov. 12, 2016)

An agricultural working group of the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform, Government’s advisory panel, which is chaired by Yasufumi Kanamaru, president of Future Architect, Inc., announced a proposal on agricultural reform on November 11. The working group first recommends that ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association) or a national business organization of agricultural cooperatives (JAs) should abolish its existing business system of marketing farm products which is based on consignment practice, and launch a new system of purchasing products from farmers to sell them in the market at its own risk. The Shinzo Abe’s administration advisory panel also urges that a half of some 660 agricultural cooperatives (JAs) … Continue reading

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【News】Footpaths in Kumamoto reopen after the April earthquake (Oct. 8, 2016)

Footpaths in Misato town, Kumamoto Prefecture, which had been closed since April due to the strong earthquake, recently reopened, attracting many tourists wishing to enjoy the satoyama landscape. The town created the footpaths in 2011 in order to invite more visitors to the depopulated community. Some 1,300 people come to the town every year to walk on 15 routes and participate in walking events. However, the April earthquake which hit the region caused damage on parts of the roads, making them impassable. The Misato footpath association set up no-entry signs on such roads and created detour routes to reopen the footpaths on Sept. 17. Although three of the walking routes … Continue reading

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【News】 Donald Trump’s victory in U.S. presidential election to possibly make his administration leave TPP (Nov. 10, 2016)

At the U.S. presidential election held on November 8, when ballots were counted immediately after voting finished, Republican nominee Donald Trump, 70, a celebrity businessman, was elected President of the United States of America by defeating Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, 69, former U.S. Secretary of State. Trump’s triumph over Clinton has made it remarkably difficult for twelve member countries, including Japan, of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement to forecast when the agreement will take effect, since he had insisted on leaving the TPP during his election campaign in which the free trade pact was one of the top agenda items. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been consistently opposing … Continue reading

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