The Japanese government aims to convert at least 25% of all its farmland to organic by 2050, a significant jump from just 0.5% in 2020. Researchers found that urban and semi-urban farmers in Tokyo ...

Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), established after the Second World War to improve farmer productivity and economic status, now face challenges from a declining farming population and increased ...

In April 2023, the Japanese government approved a new draft amendment to the Special Zones for the Structural Reform Act. The amendment allows corporations to own agricultural land nationally, based ...

Solar sharing, or agrivoltaics, is a system where solar panels and farming are on the same land. It's growing in popularity among farmers in Japan as a way to generate money and adopt sustainable ...

Abe Shinzo is often considered Japan’s most powerful prime minister. But he faced steep political opposition in one of his primary goals. Under the Abe administration, the power of the prime minister ...

Japan’s dairy farming industry has been struggling in recent years. Demand for milk dropped during the pandemic, leading to concerns that huge volumes of milk would go to waste in 2021 and again in ...

Japan's agricultural sector has been facing a workforce shortage for many years due to the country's aging population. While the solution adopted abroad has been to import immigrant workers, mostly ...

Perhaps no country fits the description of Robert Putnam’s “two-level game” theory better than Japan. Putnam describes international negotiations as a bargaining process not only with the ...

Conventional food production and distribution systems degrade the environment due to several aspects, like overuse of fertilizers and high greenhouse gas emissions. This necessitates a shift towards ...

I want to be the most influential farmer in the world. The first step is for me to become the most influential farmer in my native Japan. As farmers, we are professional businessmen and women who ...

New research into ancient Japanese rice farming suggests that significant technological development does not always mean ‘abandonment’ of cultural practices - particularly culinary traditions.