【News】 Can’t stay silent – weekly magazines feature articles on TPP (July 20, 2013)

  After the Japanese government announced its intention to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, one magazine after another is publishing feature articles on the issue. Not only political and economic magazines but even gossip magazines have put together well-described stories on such topics as food safety and privatization of health care. The articles are receiving positive reactions from readers, indicating that magazines can play an effective role in stimulating public concern over the TPP talks. “Your breakfast will be filled with genetically modified foods and foods grown using pesticides.” “Even full-time employees will be fired suddenly like in the United States.” “You won’t be able to take your child … Continue reading

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【News】 Conception rates in cattle decrease in summer due to hormonal imbalance, a research finds (July 19, 2013)

  One of the reasons why fertility of cows decline during the summer is because the summer heat stress negatively affects the secretion of prostaglandins in the oviducts, causing hormone imbalances, according to a research group of the Okayama University Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science. Professor Kiyoshi Okuda who heads the research group said the findings will be helpful in analyzing the causes of oviduct malfunction and searching ways to improve the conception rates. Peristaltic movements of oviducts, which are the forces leading to  transportation of early embryos to the uterus, are affected by secretion of two types of hormone-like substance prostaglandin – prostaglandin E2(PGE2) and prostaglandin F2α(PGF2α). … Continue reading

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【News】 Kuzumaki in Iwate Prefecture manages to squeeze the rate of unused farmland to 1% (July 19, 2013)

  Kuzumaki, a dairy farming region in the heart of Iwate Prefecture which has been tackling for more than a decade to facilitate the use of uncultivated farmland, was officially commended for managing to reduce the rate of such land to 1% of total farmlands in fiscal 2011. A region with an average altitude of 390 meters, Kuzumaki has 3,830 hectares of farmland, out of which 84% is used as fields to grow feed grains. Concerned with the situation where the aging of farmers and lack of successors led to increasing amount of farmlands standing idle, the agriculture committee of the local government began taking measures to reduce the area … Continue reading

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【News】 Cutting tariffs on agricultural products will squeeze domestic production of agricultural and related industries by 11.7 trillion yen, professors say (July 18, 2013)

  A group of anti-TPP professors announced on Wednesday, July 17, that if the government abolishes tariffs on agricultural products as discussed under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, domestic production in the agricultural and related sectors is estimated to drop by 11.7 trillion yen. According to Eiji Doi, professor emeritus at Shizuoka University who conducted the calculations, the group’s estimates are based on the government estimate that farming output is likely to drop by 3 trillion yen, but they also include impacts on related industries such as transportation and food processing which are predicted to suffer nearly three times as much damage as the agricultural sector. As a result, the … Continue reading

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【Editorial】 Election candidates should discuss TPP in their own words (July 17, 2013)

  With only a few days left before the Upper House election, the focus remains on whether the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito, which already control the more powerful Lower House, can finally put an end to the divided Diet by winning a majority in the Upper House. Much less attention is paid on the actual policy debates, and almost no discussion has been made on strategies concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, which is one of the top priority policies. Farmers have virtually no clue who they should trust and to whom they should cast their votes. Candidates should discuss in their own words their … Continue reading

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