FY2018 feeding damage reaches 15.8 billion yen, nationwide damage drops for six consecutive years, regional damage up in 13 prefectures: Farm Ministry

Tokyo, Feb. 26 – Farm Ministry of Japan said that damage to agricultural products by birds and animals in Japan was 15.8 billion yen in the fiscal year 2019. The figure was reported on February 26, 2020, at the Liberal Democratic Party’s joint meeting on wild birds and animals. The nationwide number dropped for six consecutive years, but 13 prefectures saw a rise in the damage. According to the report, the impact was not limited to the loss of agricultural products -affected farmers are feeling reluctant to continue farming and the number of farmers who decided to exit is increasing. The ministry, therefore, is now preparing an additional survey on … Continue reading

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Nagano successfully develops new pink, rich, crispy apple, expecting to discover new use

Nagano, Feb. 21 – Nagano Prefecture Agricultural Experiment Station has successfully developed a new strain of apple called “Apple Choka 34.” It’s a late-maturing variety that features pink flesh, which is sweet-and-sour and rich in taste. Also, it has a pleasant crispy texture. It’s good not only for table fruit but also for various other purposes, for example, as colorful cut fruits for salad or semi-dried products. With Apple Choka 34, the prefecture expects to create a very new demand that cannot be found with existing varieties. Private breeders and universities have also bred the apples with red or pink flesh, but it was the first time for Nagano to … Continue reading

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Miyazaki aiming to keep and make tradition of yagura radish towers Japan’s agricultural heritage system

Miyazaki Prefecture, Feb. 15 – In Tano Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, sun-dried daikon radishes are almost ready for shipment. Building significant scaffolds called yagura for drying radishes in the sun and the cold wind in winter is a food culture that gives Miyazaki’s signature scenery. Now people have gathered to make “the number one production of sun-dried daikon radishes and daikon yagura towers in Japan” one of the Japanese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Officials of a local agricultural cooperative (JA Miyazaki Chuo), Tano Town Commerce and Industry Association, and Prefecture and Town governments have formed an association, and they are boosting their activities. -Inviting more people for daikon hanging to … Continue reading

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Accounting problems on the classification of liability and equity from the perspective of cooperatives

June 1st, 2019 Norinchukin Research Institute Co., Ltd. AKEDA Tsukuru, Visiting Researcher ■Abstract In June 2018, with regard to the classification of financial instruments under IAS 32, IASB has made a new proposal and invited the public to give comments on the classification of liability and equity based on the two new criteria, “timing feature” and “amount feature” of the delivery of the entity’s economic resources. This newly proposed criteria offer nothing but a working explanation on the controversial fixed-for-fixed condition for derivative financial instruments that are to be settled with their own shares, and on an equity instrument that is not classified as equity. Cooperatives and other similar entities … Continue reading

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Arguments over associate membership system in the Agricultural Cooperatives Act of Japan and their problems

December 1st, 2017 Norinchukin Research Institute Co., Ltd. AKEDA Tsukuru, Visiting Fellow ■Abstract From a viewpoint of the legal system, we have already brought about an end to arguments over a question of whether an agricultural cooperative is an organization of farmers for cooperation or not, since the system has provided the regular members of farmers with a right of control over management of their cooperative. Although an increase in the number of associate members may make contribution to profits of regular members who are farmers, there are not such actual conditions as the increase brings about disadvantages to them. Even supposing that the regular members suffer disadvantages from the … Continue reading

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