【Interview series】 2016 Election: Questions at issue –Shiro Wakui, garden designer (June 14, 2016)

[First in a series] <The upcoming Upper House election focuses mainly on economic policies and less on agriculture and rural villages. What will happen to our food resources under the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement? How did lives in rural areas change under the “economy comes first” policy? These are significant issues that are closely related to the Japanese people. The Japan Agricultural News asked three experts what they think are the issues which need to be addressed in the election.> Current policies regarding metropolitan and rural areas are contradictory in two ways. While the government promotes regional revitalization, it also advocates the “super mega region plan” to encourage concentration of working … Continue reading

Posted in Others | Comments Off on 【Interview series】 2016 Election: Questions at issue –Shiro Wakui, garden designer (June 14, 2016)

【News】 Solar power useful both for evacuation shelter and vitalization of rural communities (June 17, 2016)

Some of rural communities have been taking an initiative in implementing a community-wide project of generating renewable energy to store some of the energy in preparation for disaster. “Yofudo Region Residents’ Council,” consisted of 10 rural communities in Asago-shi, Hyogo prefecture, has been selling solar power since March 2015 through the fixed price purchase system, which is generated with solar panels installed on a gymnasium of a primary school closed due to a decrease in children at these communities. The solar power generation system of the Council has been also equipped with a facility of storage battery. The facility is expected to play a role of keeping the lifeline running … Continue reading

Posted in Food & Agriculture | Comments Off on 【News】 Solar power useful both for evacuation shelter and vitalization of rural communities (June 17, 2016)

【News】 Farmers’ cooperative and Fishermen’s cooperative to successfully collaborate to keep the marine resources sustainable by producing “starfish compost” (June 18, 2016)

Farmers’ attempt to solve the problem faced by fishermen is now being made to achieve a successful result at Tsubetsu-cho located in the north-eastern part of Hokkaido. The keyword of their joint project is a “starfish.” The farmer’s organization is taking an initiative to produce the compost for local farmers with the starfish which are natural enemies of the scallops. The scallop is one of the major specialties of the Tsubetsu town, but the scallop culture in the sea has been damaged by the starfish. This joint project has been carried out by three partners of Tsubetsu Agricultural Cooperative (JA), Abashiri Fisheries Cooperative and Nishi-Abashiri Fisheries Cooperative since 2013. The … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperatives | Comments Off on 【News】 Farmers’ cooperative and Fishermen’s cooperative to successfully collaborate to keep the marine resources sustainable by producing “starfish compost” (June 18, 2016)

【News】 Akihabara cafe maids to look forward to harvesting their herbs and vegetables (June 16, 2016)

Seven maids working for “maid cafes” in Akihabara performed a job of planting seedlings of herbs and sowing seeds of vegetables on the rooftop of the head office building of the Japan Agricultural News at Akihabara, Taito-ku Tokyo, on June 15. This event is a part of “Akihabara Vegetable Garden Project” worked out by a nonprofit organization called “licolita” (literally, selfish activities useful for others) since the year of 2009, which seeks for realization of “Chisan-Chisho” (localization of food production and consumption) in the area of Akihabara. The maids planted not only seedlings of herbs including basil and mint, but also sowed seeds of chili and pakchi (coriander) to meet … Continue reading

Posted in Food & Agriculture | Comments Off on 【News】 Akihabara cafe maids to look forward to harvesting their herbs and vegetables (June 16, 2016)

【News】 MAFF warns farmers against bears and prefectural governments on the alert for their appearances (June 16, 2016)

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) began to warn farmers against bears since wild bears have appeared one after another across the country and the casualties have been increasing in recent months. MAFF’s website provides farmers with information on how to discourage bears from coming into rural communities as well as how to survive a bear attack during farm works on the field. Prefectural governments received this month MAFF’s notification that a warning against bears should be given to farmers and other rural residents. The notification is really unseasonable, while bears usually appear at rural communities in autumn before they enter hibernation. According to MAFF’s list of advices not … Continue reading

Posted in Food & Agriculture | Comments Off on 【News】 MAFF warns farmers against bears and prefectural governments on the alert for their appearances (June 16, 2016)