【Editorial】 Setting a deadline on Japan-Australia EPA negotiations is infringement of Diet resolutions (March 14, 2014)

  Negotiations on the economic partnership agreement between Japan and Australia are starting to get strained, as the two sides try to reach agreement before Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott visits Japan in early April. However, agricultural committees of both the Lower and Upper houses of the Diet have adopted resolutions asking the government to continue negotiating persistently without setting a deadline. Farmers are deeply concerned as a senior Liberal Democratic Party official noted that Japanese negotiators have proposed reducing tariffs on beef. We cannot allow the two governments to negotiate for the sake of meeting deadlines. Ensuring a sustainable future for agriculture is more important than letting political leaders … Continue reading

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【News】 Ruling party asks government to consider risks of poor harvest when simulating rice supply and demand (March 12, 2014)

  The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tuesday showed a simulation of rice supply and demand for 2023 as part of the government’s effort to disclose information in line with its new agricultural policy of letting farmers produce rice based on their own judgment instead of following the government-set targets. The ministry’s simulation, shown at a joint meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Agriculture and Forestry Division and Research Commission on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Strategy, estimates that demand for rice consumed as staple food will decrease by around 80,000 tons every year from 7.87 million tons posted in 2013, and will reach 7.03 million tons in 2023. Some … Continue reading

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【News】 2:46 p.m. – Three years after (March 12, 2014)

  Kotaro Yamada On March 11, three years after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, a man was visiting a memorial monument in Ukedo in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, to pray for the victims of the disaster at 2:46 p.m., the time when the earthquake struck the area. Chimneys of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, some 6 km away from the monument, can be seen standing in the distance. Ukedo still remains designated as an evacuation zone after the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, restricting people from entering or living in the area, hampering restoration from the disaster. In the nearby fields, which used to be … Continue reading

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【Feature】Contaminated pasture grass left abandoned in disaster-hit Miyagi (March 11, 2014)

  Hiroki Chiba, 57, a cattle breeder in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture who owns 60 Japanese breeding cows, keeps 50 rolls – weighing roughly 20 tons – of packaged pasture grass harvested in 2011 on a 50-are land next to his cowshed. The grass contains 8,000 becquerels or less per kilogram of radioactive fallout from the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The grass rolls are estimated to weigh around 400 to 500 kilograms each. Each of the rolls gained at least 100 kilograms more weight while left out in the open, as rainwater sank into the grass through the deteriorated plastic … Continue reading

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【News】 A set of rice varieties from six Tohoku prefectures put on sale in Tokyo (March 7, 2014)

  Koike Seimaiten, a rice shop in Harajuku, Tokyo, started selling a set of six organic, low-pesticide or low-chemical rice varieties grown in six prefectures in the Tohoku region to support the region’s revitalization efforts. As March 11 marks the third anniversary of the gigantic earthquake and tsunami which hit the region, President Tadao Koike, 42, says he hopes to connect rice growers in Tohoku and consumers together by becoming a reliable supplier of Tohoku rice. More than 50 percent of rice sold annually at the shop is from Tohoku. The 6,000-yen package includes 300g each of Akitakomachi from Akita Prefecture, Sasanishiki from Miyagi Prefecture, Hitomebore from Iwate Prefecture, Masshigura … Continue reading

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