Agriculture minister Koya Nishikawa said Tuesday, Dec. 16, that the government hopes to submit a bill to revise the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law to the Diet in February at the earliest, although indicating that it may be delayed due to opposing views among the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the agricultural co-op group. Government officials had indicated their will to submit the bill to the ordinary Diet session which will start next January, but had not given a specific timing. Nishikawa explained that he expects the budget bill for fiscal 2015 to be discussed and passed in the Lower House in February and in the Upper House in March … Continue reading →

  As the government works to submit a bill to the next yeakar’s ordinary Diet session to revise the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law, Motoyuki Oka, head of the government’s Regulatory Reform Council, said on Monday, Dec. 15 that the panel will strongly urge the government to abolish legal authority of agricultural co-operatives’ central and prefectural unions to audit member co-ops (JAs). At the panel’s meeting held earlier in the day, the panel’s agriculture working group submitted its proposals regarding the review of agricultural co-ops. The proposals include taking away legal authority from central and prefectural unions to audit primary JAs and introducing restrictions on the use of JAs by non-farmer … Continue reading →