Japan Co-op Alliance’s first statistics exhibit 5.6-trillion-yen high added-value by cooperatives associations

TOKYO, Mar. 26 – Japan Co-operative Alliance (JCA) released its first official statistics on co-op business in Japan on March 26, 2020. According to the statistics, the total amount of the value added by the cooperatives in Japan was approximately 5.6 trillion yen. It accounts for 1.9% of the sum of the value added by all domestic industries. The total number of cooperative association members is 15.61 million, and each household is estimated to have memberships in 1.8 associations. JCA will continue releasing the statistics in the future as one of the means to exhibit the broad presence of cooperative associations in Japan. The base figures for the statistics are … Continue reading

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“Too real to watch?” Zenkyoren develops Japan’s first VR-based farm accident simulator

TOKYO, Mar. 27 – Japan’s National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren) announced on March 26, 2020, that it developed a VR-based farm accident simulator for the first time in Japan. The system uses a virtual reality (VR) headset and a smartphone equipped with glasses exclusively designed for that purpose, and people can simulate five types of agricultural machinery accidents. The mutual insurance co-op will start renting the unit to local agricultural cooperatives in Japan (JA) in April this year, so that JAs can use it for training JA staff and local farmers and eventually prevent future accidents. The five accidents it assumes are those while driving a tractor, … Continue reading

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Japan sets clear goal of raising farm export to 5 trillion yen by 2030

TOKYO, Mar. 7 – Japan has set a new target for exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and foods at a council of Ministers on March 6, 2020. According to the announcement after the council, the country now plans to increase agricultural, forestry, and fishery exports to 5 trillion yen by 2030. It includes 3,510 billion yen for farm products, including processed food. As a midterm goal, the country is also committed to boost the export of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products to 2 trillion yen by 2025. Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, instructed each minister “to have concrete discussions as soon as possible and work together … Continue reading

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Six Tohoku prefectures see record number of inbound visitors since 3/11

TOKYO, Mar. 11 – The number of inbound tourists who stayed at inns and hotels in six prefectures in Tohoku district of Japan in 2019 was about 1,558,000, up 21% compared to last year, the Reconstruction Agency said. Efforts to boost local tourism, including agricultural tours at fruit orchards, have been successful in supporting a steady rise in the number of the inbound tourists since 2011, the year the Great East Japan Earthquake hit the north-eastern part of Japan harshly. The figure exceeded 1.5 million for the first time in 2019. However, the figure is expected to decline in the first half of 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, … Continue reading

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Quake-hit Fukushima finds new markets in Southeast Asia Rice, fruits, and other agricultural export grows 40%

FUKUSHIMA, Mar. 11 – The export of agricultural products from Fukushima Prefecture is increasing. According to the prefecture, its shipping of farm products in the first ten months of the fiscal year 2019 (from April 2019 to January 2020) was record-high 265 tons, 40% higher than the same period last year. Rice has been a driving force, while the export of peaches and apples grew dramatically. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, some countries and regions have kept import restrictions on food from the prefecture hit hard in the 2011 earthquake. However, the prefecture has been successful in promoting the sales overseas by exploring new markets primarily in Southeast Asia. … Continue reading

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