In a last-minute effort to reflect agricultural co-operatives’ opinions in the government’s agricultural reform plan, Akira Banzai, head of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) met ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers with close links to the farm sector on Friday, Feb. 6, to make a number of requests including keeping the union’s auditing system. Banzai asked LDP members to maintain JA-Zenchu’s audits and let primary JAs choose between the central union’s audits and those by certified public accountants. He also requested that JA-Zenchu and prefectural unions have the same kind of corporate capacity under the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law, and expressed opposition to restricting non-farmer members’ use of … Continue reading →

  As many as 95 percent of heads of primary agricultural co-operatives said they don’t think their freedom of management is hindered by the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), according to a survey conducted by The Japan Agricultural News on primary JA heads nationwide. In the agricultural co-ops reform, the government is trying to dismantle JA-Zenchu, giving as a reason that its control on primary JAs is preventing individual co-ops from operating freely. But the result of the survey shows that primary JAs have totally opposite views, and they are likely to strongly resist reform which ignores their opinions. The Japan Agricultural News sent a questionnaire via fax to … Continue reading →