TOKYO, Aug. 5 ― Some of Japanese food exports in the first six months of 2018 broke the previous record set last year, as the popularity of Japanese dish, or washoku, has hit new heights around the globe in recent years. Shipments of Japanese beef, for example, jumped 37% to 10.8 billion yen in the first half from the same period a year earlier, data from the finance ministry showed. Both figures are the highest since the ministry started recording in 1988. This is partly because Taiwan has emerged as the top destination for the Japanese beef, after the Asian neighboring country lifted a 16-year ban on beef imports from … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 4 ― One year after becoming Japan’s agriculture minister, Ken Saito has led a move to cultivate new markets overseas for Japanese farm products. “The past year has been very exciting to me,” Saito said at a Aug. 3 press conference, as he reflected the first year as the agriculture minister. Indeed, he focused on boosting Japanese farm exports for much of the past year, as he stressed the country faces a declining population. Japanese food export value in the first five months of 2018 rose 15% from the same period a year earlier. If they can keep this pace, Japan will likely meet its target of 1 … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 9 ― Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate remained the second lowest level in 2017, due to steadily declining consumption of rice, the country’s staple food, and increasing meat imports, despite a recover of harvest in northern Japan. The calorie-based rate of food self-sufficiency in 2017 remained flat at 37.78 percent, followed by 37.58 percent in 2016, the agriculture ministry said on Aug. 8. The country’s lowest figure was 37 percent in 1993, after the unusually cold and rainy summer had damaged the rice crop and forced Tokyo to make a move often considered taboo — importing foreign rice — at that time. The food self-sufficiency rate shows how much … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Aug. 11 ― Japan’s Agriculture Minister Ken Saito has stressed the government will double its efforts to help farmers enable to keep growing products that people want to eat in order to improve the country’s food self-sufficiency. The calorie-based rate of self-sufficiency remained flat at 37.78 percent in 2017, according to the ministry. That was the second lowest level, despite a recover of harvest after heavy rains in northern Japan. “The biggest problem is Japanese are increasingly moving away from rice,” Saito said at a Aug. 10 press conference, attributing the low self-sufficiency rate to declining consumption of the country’s staple food. “We need to create an environment which … Continue reading →