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December 22, 2024
 

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MAFF

Food loss happens at food-related businesses including-food makers, retailers and restaurants, as well as at households.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2024
Japan drafts more ambitious 60% goal for cutting business food loss by 2030
The government hopes to require food businesses to change practices such as rejecting foods and beverages that are close to their best-before date.
The rice harvest ramped up this month and will ease a supply squeeze, but farmers and Japan’s main grain distributor have agreed to higher contract prices.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024
Rice inflation to persist despite harvest, as prices rise over 20% on year
Tokyo shoppers were paying 23% more than a year ago for 5 kilogram bags of rice last month, while wholesale prices have risen 28% — the biggest hike since 1975.
Shuzo Fukushi, who heads Rice Meister Kojimachi in Tokyo, shows a bag of Calrose mixed with domestic rice at his store on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 6, 2024
Demand for Calrose rice rises amid Japanese rice shortage
The California rice is a medium-grain variety cheaper than the Japanese short-grain cultivar, but with a similar taste.
Empty shelves of rice are pictured in a supermarket in Tokyo on Aug. 27 with a notice asking customers to buy one brand a day for a family.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024
Agricultural Ministry holds meeting on rice shortage in stores
As of the end of June, private-sector rice inventories in the country stood at 1.56 million metric tons, the lowest since comparable data became available in 1999.
A supermarket worker puts up a sign asking purchasers to buy only one bag per person, in Tokyo on July 25.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024
Why it's hard to find rice at Japan's supermarkets right now
In recent weeks, store shelves have often been barren, with many shops displaying signs asking purchasers to stick to one bag per person.
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate has declined on the back of the country's changing food culture as demand for rice declines.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate remained stable at 38% in fiscal 2023
The rate has remained stagnant even though the government aims to raise it to 45% by fiscal 2030.
Freshly-caught bonito fish unloaded in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. Japan's food exports to China plunged in the first half of 2024 due to Beijing's import ban on Japanese fishery products.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2024
Japan's first-half food exports fall for first time in four years
The latest result reflected China's import ban on Japanese fishery products since last summer in response to the release of treated Fukushima water.
A worker at a supermarket in Tokyo's Nerima Ward puts up a sign on July 25 saying rice purchases are restricted to one bag per customer.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2024
Japan's rice stocks shrink to record low amid high demand and heat woes
An 18 percentage point decline in the share of 2023's crop rated first-grade led to a decrease in rice on the market, while demand saw the first rise in a decade.
Farm minister Tetsushi Sakamoto stands as an amendment on Japan's farm policies clears parliament on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2024
Japan enacts revised 'constitution' for farm policies
The revised law newly underscores the necessity of ensuring food security at a time when supply chains are being destabilized.
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Apr 28, 2024
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
As Japan’s rice farmers prepare for a new planting season, many will be hoping that this summer brings a reprieve from 2023’s brutal weather conditions.
Agriculture minister Tetsushi Sakamoto shows a mock-up of a label for vegetables grown in a sustainable way at his ministry on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 1, 2024
Japan's farm ministry launches eco-labeling initiative for sustainable farming
The labels will serve as a visual cue for environmental efforts and are aimed at enhancing consumer awareness toward fostering a sustainable food system.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 25, 2023
As farmers gray, Japan pins hopes on robots and smart agriculture
The agriculture ministry is currently supporting the development and testing of related technologies by companies in 217 districts across Japan.
Ichiro Miyashita arrives at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday after being named the new minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in a Cabinet reshuffle the same day.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2023
Japan aiming to diversify export markets to cut risks
New agriculture minister Ichiro Miyashita has expressed his intention to work on diversifying export destinations to reduce risks.
A farmer plants rice seedlings using a rice transplanter in a paddy field in Kobe in June.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2023
Japan's demand for rice falls 10 years in a row
As demand wanes, the agriculture ministry has begun urging farmers to switch to growing soybeans and wheat, as well as rice used for animal feed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2023
Japan adopts concept of farming policy overhaul to boost food security
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suggested that the government will work to increase the domestic production of wheat, soybeans and feed grains in order to reduce Japan's reliance on imports.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2023
Daiwa to start using AI chatbot spurned by Wall Street banks
Japan’s second-biggest brokerage plans to adopt the ChatGPT technology from this month for all of its 9,000 domestic employees, adding that it has 'limitless potential.”
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 19, 2023
Japan on high alert as avian flu rages across the country and heads north
Amid egg shortages and soaring prices, how worried should people be about the potential impacts of bird flu on human health?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2023
Russia rejects talks with Japan on fishing near disputed islands
Moscow has said it cannot currently arrange a schedule for the talks on Japanese fishing operations for Alaska pollock, octopuses, Okhotsk Atka mackerel and other seafood.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

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