On August 7, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) convened the first meeting of the Council on Food, Agriculture and Rural Area Policies Committee on Food Safety and Consumer Affairs, which approved a schedule for the promotion of measures to assure food safety and peace of mind (see Table).

The schedule covers MAFF’s planned activities in 12 areas, including the control of agricultural production materials and the optimization of food labeling, up to the end of March 2004.

A manual on responding to information from internal whistle-blowers on the falsification of labeling, etc. is to be drawn up by the end of January 2004. Teams responsible for the control of risks relating to cadmium, dioxins, etc. are to be established by October this year. Measures for the promotion of traceability (systems to allow the tracing of production and distribution history) will be drawn up by March 2004. Crisis control manuals for use in the event of incidents of food poisoning, etc. are to be created, and crisis control teams established, by the end of October.

The Committee on Food Safety and Consumer Affairs will also discuss health control standards and guidelines for the prevention of specified infectious diseases in livestock, with a view to preventing the transference of diseases from livestock to human beings, and aim to publish its findings by the end of December. To this end, the Committee decided to establish a Livestock Health Sub-Committee by the end of September.

Schedule for the Promotion of Measures to Assure Food Safety and Peace of Mind

<Click here for tables of the Schedule>
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2004 Rice Production Target Set at 8.38 Million Tons

On August 21, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) finalized its forecast of demand for rice produced in 2003 and 2004. To help reduce private sector rice stocks, the production target for 2004 has been set lower than the forecast demand at 8.38 million tons. The allocation of target production volumes by prefecture is to be decided in November, once this year’s crop assessments are in.

The demand forecast is based on the advice of a meeting of the Staple Foods Sub-Committee of the Council on Food, Agriculture and Rural Area Policies, held in late July. Demand for rice has declined by an annual average of 130,000 tons starting with the 1991 crop and is expected to fall to 8.69 million tons with the 2003 crop and 8.56 million tons with the 2004 crop.

MAFF will continue to keep production lower than demand after 2004, aiming to clear private-sector rice stocks within two years. It plans to freeze sales of government stocks of rice produced in 1996 and 1997 from November this year and dispose of it by means other than sale for table consumption. MAFF expects overall rice stocks to fall to the more appropriate level of 1 million tons by the end of October 2006.
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MAFF Establishes Framework of Domestic Measures Relating to Beef & Pork Safeguards

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has finalized a framework of domestic support measures relating to Japan’s safeguards on beef and pork imports. Besides looking at the possibility of offering financial aid to distributors who suffer as a result of the rise in purchase prices, MAFF will take steps to protect the consumer, such as publishing the names of distributors who take advantage of the activation of the safeguards to raise their prices.

The financial aid provided to distributors such as retailers and the food service industry will center on low-interest loans issued by government financial institutions such as the Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business and the Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Finance Corporation. To make it easier for distributors to borrow from private-sector financial institutions, MAFF is also considering the possibility of increasing the maximum amount of unsecured guarantees provided by prefectural credit guarantee associations.

MAFF will investigate the degree to which the safeguard measures to be activated at the end of August affect the sales and profits of the food service industry, etc. and, where necessary, will discuss the appropriate response with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and other ministries and agencies concerned. The Japan Foodservice Association estimates that the activation of safeguard measures will increase the burden on the food service and retail sectors by 34 billion yen a year, and dissatisfaction is smoldering in the distribution industry at the fact that the present climate of deflation makes it difficult to pass on the additional tariff burden.

To help prevent opportunistic price increases, MAFF launched a survey of pricing among retailers at the beginning of August. On the basis of its analysis, which will include a comparison of purchase and retail prices, MAFF will caution or issue administrative guidance to any distributor found to have made a clearly opportunistic price increase. In serious cases, the name of the distributor will be posted on the MAFF website.
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Report Proposes Use of "Global Warming Countermeasures Tax" to Fund Forest Maintenance

A research committee report released by the Forestry Agency on July 28 proposes that, if a "Global Warming Countermeasures Tax" were introduced, an appropriate use of the revenue would be to fund forest maintenance. Japan has won the concession of using forest absorption to achieve 3.9 percentage points of the 6% total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to which it is bound under the Kyoto Protocol. However, at the present level of maintenance, it is likely that the absorption volume of Japan’s forests will decline significantly, and securing the necessary funding has become a key issue.

At the end of 2002, the Forestry Agency drew up a "10-Year Plan for the Securing of Forest Absorption Resources Against Global Warming" and has been working to improve Japan’s forests. The calculations of absorption volume are based on a total forested area of 17.5 million hectares, including both plantations and natural forest. However, if forest maintenance fails to rise above the level achieved during the period 1998-2000, it is estimated that approximately 3 million hectares of plantations will be neglected. As a result Japan’s forest absorption will fall to 2.9%.

Maintaining a forest requires a great deal of work, including planting, brush clearing and periodic thinning, and it is estimated by some that ten years of maintenance work will cost 1 trillion yen.

The Ministry of the Environment’s Central Environment Council is looking at the introduction of an environment tax. Taxes of this type have already been introduced in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
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Japan Activates Safeguards Raising Tariffs on Beef and Pork

On August 1, the government activated safeguard measures raising tariffs on fresh and chilled beef and pork. The decision was taken after the figures for June in the Ministry of Finance’s Foreign Trade Statistics pushed the growth of imports during the April-June quarter over the trigger levels. The tariff on beef will be raised from 38.5% to 50%, effective from August 1 until March 31, 2004.

Under the beef safeguard measures, the figures for import volume are totaled every three months and if the cumulative growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the quarter exceeds 17% of imports during the corresponding period in the previous year, the tariff is automatically raised. Imports of fresh and chilled beef surged in the April-June quarter, rising by approximately 34% on the same period in 2002, thereby exceeding the trigger level. Imports of frozen beef rose by only 5% over the same period, not enough to trigger safeguard measures.

The system applicable to pork differs from that for beef, but safeguards were activated because import volume during the April-June quarter surged as compared with the average for the corresponding period in the past three years, and exceeded the trigger level.
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US and Japan Agree on Measures to Stop Re-exportation of Canadian Beef to Japan

On August 9, the US and Japanese governments reached an agreement whereby the United States will take steps to prevent beef produced in Canada, which recently faced an outbreak of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), from being re-exported to Japan. The United States is due to reopen its borders to imports of beef from Canada on September 1. US government auditors will inspect beef for export at the slaughtering stage to verify that it has not been commingled with Canadian beef, and will issue certificates to this effect in respect of shipments destined for Japan. The aim is to assure the safety of beef exported from the United States.

As requested by Japan, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will draw up guidelines requiring farmers to distinguish between US cattle and those bred in other countries. USDA officials will visit slaughterhouses, etc. to check that imported beef is strictly separated from domestic meat, and procedures will be introduced for the issue of certificates to the effect that beef for export was not produced in Canada.

Japan will only admit imports of beef with this certificate. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) says the measure will prevent Canadian beef from entering Japan via the United States.

Japan suspended all imports of beef and beef products from Canada on May 21 following the discovery of a BSE-infected cow in that country. Japan intends to continue its ban on imports of Canadian beef.

According to MAFF figures, Japan imported some 20,000 tons of beef from Canada and 220,000 tons from the United States in 2002. The United States imported approximately 340,000 tons of beef from Canada in the same year.
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Performance of Japanese Holstein Seed Bulls is World-Class

The National Livestock Breeding Center (NLBC) has, for the first time, published the results of an international evaluation of the performance of dairy breed seed bulls. The NLBC’s analysis indicates that, when assessed by the methods of the international evaluation, the performance of Holstein seed bulls bred in Japan is among the highest in the world. The Center describes their economic performance as "world-class".

The NLBC, which formerly published evaluations of the performance of foreign seed bulls twice a year, recently switched to evaluations by an international organization known as Interbull. Because Interbull evaluations calculate the performance that can be expected from all seed bulls in all participating countries, when used in a specific country, it is possible to compare the performance that can be expected when imported semen is used in Japan with the performance of seed bulls in Japan, using the same scale.

In the ranking of seed bulls for use in Japan, 25 of the top 100 animals whose daughters can be expected to give improved milk yield are Japanese animals. In the genetic evaluations for milk fat and milk protein, 33 of the top 100 animals are Japanese.

Focusing on seed bulls born in 1998, the genetic evaluation of the performance of Japanese animals in terms of average milk yield is high, even in comparison with that of animals in the Netherlands or the United States, and is described by the NLBC as "among the highest in the world".
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60% of Consumers "Uneasy" About GM Foods, Avoid Buying Them Even if Cheaper

The results of an Internet survey published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) on July 22 reveal that over 60% of Japanese consumers are uneasy about the safety of GM (genetically modified) foods and try to avoid buying them.

GM foods are foods made with crops that have been genetically modified to increase their yield or make them resistant to insect pests or herbicides. Six GM crops are approved for food use in Japan: soybeans, maize, potatoes, rapeseed, cotton, and sugar beet. The labeling of processed foods is also required to indicate that the foods contain these GM crops.

The survey, carried out by the MAFF Policy Research Institute in February-March, was conducted among the subscribers of an Internet provider who were asked to state the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements concerning GM foods. Six hundred responses were received. The majority of responses to the statement "Producers of GM foods give due consideration to the potential risks to health and the environment" were negative, some 65% of respondents replying "Disagree" or "Strongly disagree".

Approximately 68% of respondents tended to avoid purchasing GM foods even if they were "significantly cheaper" than non-GM foods. Approximately 60% of respondents were reluctant to purchase GM foods even if they had "high nutritional value" or were "grown using fewer chemical fertilizers and agricultural chemicals", a clear indication of a tendency to avoid GM foods.

Survey of Attitudes to GM Foods

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Japan’s Beautiful Farming Villages Should be Preserved as Part of the National Heritage

There is much talk of the danger that the beautiful scenery and traditional culture of Japan’s farming villages may not be passed on to future generations. Rapid birthrate decline and population aging have lowered the vitality of village communities. The indiscriminate construction of housing that is out of harmony with existing villages, the fly tipping of refuse and other problems are steadily reducing the attraction of what could be described as the primal landscape of Japan. Many initiatives aimed at preserving our beautiful farming villages are under way, but what we need is a broader approach that positions farming villages as part of the common heritage of the Japanese people and involves city dwellers as well as local inhabitants.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Study Group on the Scenic Beauty of Farming, Fishing and Mountain Villages recently published a report entitled "The Preservation and Development of Farming, Fishing and Mountain Villages of Scenic Beauty". The report talks of farming villages as having a "character built up over many years" and differing from the inorganic and uniform nature of cities. Farming villages have preserved a local society in which traditional culture is flourishing, but in many cases their beautiful appearance has been spoiled and communal activities and local traditions have been reduced to a bare skeleton or lost.

Meanwhile, people in Japan have come to prize yutori [ease, comfort] and yasuragi [peace, tranquility] as lifestyle values, and are increasingly attracted by "the rich natural beauty of farming, fishing and mountain villages", another reason why it is important to protect the natural environment and scenery in and around villages, pass on their traditional culture, etc.

The first condition for the preservation of beautiful farming villages is the health of agriculture itself. Farmland and forest are at their most beautiful when they are used, rather than allowed to run wild. For this reason, agricultural production must provide adequate income and employment opportunities.

In a word, the beauty of farming villages lies in their "harmony". There is a harmony between landscape and man-made structures, such as that between paddy fields and thatched roofs. If this harmony is disrupted, if the order of the way the houses stand becomes confused, the village loses its attraction. The beauty lies in the harmony of the village’s appearance and the way the houses stand, which is dependent on the orderly use of land, etc. It does not come from borrowed ideas. Nor does it involve building European-style houses. Buildings that harmonize with the local surroundings are beautiful.

The report maintains that the beauty of farming villages lies not only in their appearance, but also in factors that are perceived with the other senses, such as the smell and feel of earth and water and the murmur of little streams. This is what creates the sense of "tranquility" that one does not have in a city. We should continue to value these aspects in the future.

It is also important that villages, being part of the common national heritage, should be made "widely accessible to city dwellers". To this end, farmland and forest must be maintained, and beautiful rural landscapes, with terraced paddy fields and dry fields, woods, etc. whose appearance changes so much with the seasons, must be preserved. Farming villages should also be valued as an environment that fosters the life force in children, and helps them grow up carefree and strong, through contact with familiar natural scenery and farming activities.

The report says it is important that we protect and develop beautiful farming villages and pass them on to future generations. Local inhabitants must play the central role, but cooperation with city dwellers is also important. Local government bodies, NPOs and business enterprises could also be involved, each playing a distinct role. Needless to say, it is vital that local development initiatives should not be uniform throughout the country, like kintaro-ame [cylindrical candy whose cross-section shows the same picture of the fairy-tale boy hero Kintaro wherever it is cut], but should vary in character, according to local conditions. Local inhabitants should approach the issues involved with respect for a heritage built up over many years.

(from an editorial in the August 4, 2003 issue of the Nihon Nogyo Shimbun)
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