【News】 Gourmet lunch for children! (Dec. 14, 2014)

Tetsuya Onda – 9th All Japan School Lunch Championship – Twelve couples of school lunch professionals show superb skills The final match to determine the best school lunch of the year was held at Kagawa Nutrition University in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, and the top 12 finalists, either school lunch centers or school dieticians for elementary and junior high schools, did their best to demonstrate their original menus all rich in local ingredients. The 9th All Japan School Lunch Championship was organized by a non-profit organization, Research and Institute for 21st Century, with an aim to support dietary education for Children. The 12 local champion teams came from Aomori Prefecture in the … Continue reading

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【Watch】 Secretive act by Mr. Froman revealed! (Dec. 12, 2014)

  Senior Staff Writer, Masaru Yamada – Washington, D.C. Ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, or TPP talks, have been strongly criticized for its secretive style of negotiations. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Thursday, Dec. 11 showed his skill how to secretly remove an anti-free-trade slogan from his coffee cup. Labor Unions and civic groups organized “an unconventional protest” outside the USTR building in Washington DC early morning passing out free coffee and the coffee cup sleeves saying “Wake up! Stop Fast Track.” Although the original purpose was to deliver coffee to participants of the chief negotiators’ meeting held here in Washington DC until Friday Dec.12, they got a much bigger … Continue reading

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【Editorial】 Don’t cover people’s eyes and ears with state secrets law (Dec. 10, 2014)

  The state secrets law came into effect on Wednesday, Dec. 10. The law will be put into practice amid remaining fears that the people’s right to know and freedom of the press might be threatened. The government set guidelines for enforcing the law a year after the ruling bloc steamrollered the bill through the Diet, but the nature of the issue remains unchanged. The government must not intentionally hide information unfavorable for itself and cover the people’s eyes and ears. The negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, conducted behind closed doors, show us the dangers of confidentiality pacts. We urge the government to make ceaseless efforts to review … Continue reading

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【News】 Mie University team develops biofuel from unconsumed tangerines (Dec. 6, 2014)

  Yasuhiko Tateishi A research team of Mie University Graduate School of Bioresources, headed by Professor Hiroshi Tamaru, has developed a technology to turn tangerines into biobutanol, which can be used as a substitute for gasoline. Compared with ethanol, which is a widely-used alternative energy produced from biomass, butanol has higher energy output. It is also less corrosive than ethanol so there should be fewer problems using existing storage and handling infrastructure for gasoline. The fuel is created by putting damaged or rotten tangerines which have become unsuitable for sale into a tank unskinned, along with microorganisms. After cells are broken up to achieve saccharification, different kinds of microbes are … Continue reading

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【Editorial】 Look again at food crisis on World Soil Day (Dec. 5, 2014)

  2015 is the year declared the International Year of Soils by the United Nations. The world is currently facing various issues including sustainable agricultural production, food security, biodiversity protection and poverty alleviation. The International Year of Soils aims to be a platform for raising awareness of the importance of soils in tackling such issues, taking into account that soils are being degraded. Dec. 5 is World Soil Day to kick off the campaign. Let us look again at the key role of soils as the basis of life. In December 2013, in response to a proposal by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations General Assembly declared Dec. … Continue reading

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