Tag Archives: News

【News】 69 percent feel Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement violates Diet resolutions: readers’ poll (Oct. 28, 2015)

  As much as 69 percent of The Japan Agricultural News readers who responded to a poll said Japan failed to keep the Diet resolutions calling for protection of key agricultural products in the broad agreement reached under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe maintains that Japanese negotiators “were able to obtain the best possible result from the perspective of Japan’s national interest” including the agriculture sector, but the result of the poll shows that farmers take it quite differently. The support rate for the Abe administration dropped to the record low level of 18 percent, and 59 percent said they don’t support him. The poll was … Continue reading

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【News】 Elimination of tariffs on oranges a complete surprise to Unshu oranges growers (Oct. 27, 2015)

Hiroko Obara Domestic mikan (Japanese tangerine) farmers are totally shocked at the announcement by the government to abolish tariffs on oranges and orange juice in line with the broad agreement reached under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. The news came as a complete surprise, as no reports had been made on the TPP negotiations over farm products other than five key sensitive items. Although domestic growers have been trying hard to produce high-quality products to cope with market liberalization, they say it will become difficult to compete with imported fruits just by differences in quality. The town of Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, is a major mikan growing region with numerous orchards … Continue reading

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【News】 One hundred and fifty rare chickens at a glance (Oct. 25, 2015)

Kotaro Yamada Bunkyo-ku Educational Center in Tokyo is currently giving an awesome exhibition of chickens from all over the world. What you’ll see there are 150 very realistic taxidermy chickens of approximately 60 variants from the collection of the University Museum, the University of Tokyo. There are many rare ones, too. A red junglefowl, for example, is a bird of Southeastern Asia which is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken. Shokoku is a variety seen already in the Heian period, Shinkuro is an uncommon breed which is all black head to toe, and Dong Tao is a breed native to Vietnam and known for its abnormally thick legs. … Continue reading

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【News】 Candles re-brazing path to new future (Oct. 18, 2015)

Kotaro Yamada Matsuyama-haze Restoration Committee (Kurume-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture) In a town once known as a major grower of a Japanese wax tree called haze (Toxicodendron succedaneum), a citizens’ group is working hard to restore its indigenous species and candles made of the haze tree wax. Founded in 2007 by a 51-year-old female citizen of Kurume, Mayumi Yano, the group Matsuyama-haze Restoration Committee focuses on restoring one particular type of haze called Matsuyama-haze that bears prime-quality fruit for obtaining mokuro (tree wax), which is raw material of warosoku (Japanese candles). The committee offers several workshops to make people share and experience the life with warosoku. In September, it co-hosted a bring-your-own-food … Continue reading

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【News】 Let giant potato skeletons link the world (Oct. 11, 2015)

Kazuhiro Eguchi – Big potato artwork on display (Memuro-cho, Hokkaido) – A unique display of big wooden potato skeletons is now open to the public in Memuro-cho, Hokkaido. The artwork is built in an old red brick warehouse, which is owned by JA Memuro, an agricultural co-op in Memuro, by a 78-year-old contemporary artist, Osamu Asano, and local farmers. It took four years for him and his supporters to complete the project whose goal is “making more people to think about   food and peace through art works.” The biggest potato inside the red brick building is six meters high and ten meters wide. Scrap woods gathered from old school buildings … Continue reading

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