CHIBA, Apr. 10 – Let’s play video games and learn about global warming. Chiba Prefecture has developed a new educational platform based on Minecraft, a popular game worldwide to build structures and items and enjoy adventures within the virtual world. The new content is designed to be used at primary and junior high schools in educational settings or events in Chiba as a tool to provide a chance to learn about global warming in a fun way. In its policy to promote the achievement of carbon-neutrality, the prefecture committed to changing the awareness of the prefecture’s residents. It came to the idea of creating a new game to build a … Continue reading →

HYOGO, March 31 – A small plant factory is created inside a Japanese sake brewery. Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co., a major sake brewer in Kobe, launched a pilot project on March 2 together with Spice Cube, an Osaka-based indoor cultivation equipment maker, to grow herbs using carbon dioxide produced during the brewing process. The harvested herbs will be used as ingredients to make gin and other products at the brewer. Hakutsuru is aiming at realizing sustainable brewing through adopting such recycling initiatives. The project will run through the end of June at Hakutsuru Sake Craft, a microbrewery that opened in September last year inside Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum in Kobe. … Continue reading →

TOKUSHIMA, Apr. 4 – Approximately 500 weeping sakura cherry blossom trees are in full bloom in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture. The flowers are smaller than usual this year due to a lack of rainfall, but they began to bloom on March 28. Kinichi Sasaki, a 92-year-old sudachi citrus grower, planted the cherry blossom trees covering an approximately 1.5-hectare site. (Sudachi is a small, round, green citrus fruit of Japanese origin and a specialty product of Tokushima Prefecture.) He started planting the trees 18 years ago with only three seedlings of Kamiyama Weeping Cherry Blossoms he received from his friend. Even after he gave up farming due to old age, he … Continue reading →

AKITA, Mar. 29 – The Akita branch of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH Akita) will sell a limited number of Sachihokore finest-quality rice produced in Akita Prefecture in 2-kilogram bags featuring an original illustration by popular illustrator Nagi from Yuzawa City in the prefecture. The rice bag has an illustration of the side face of a young woman and cherry blossoms in full bloom. A person from ZEN-NOH Akita in charge of the unique rice project hopes that consumers will enjoy both Nagi’s illustration and Akita rice. Nagi is popular among young women for her style of drawing many facets of women adorably. So far, she has … Continue reading →