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We are happy to welcome Paige Tomaselli, senior staff attorney at US-based Center for Food Safety, who will be speaking at 3 events in Tokyo in May. She is invited by Consumers Union of Japan, No! GMO Campaign and Japan Citizens’ Network for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. May 18 is International day of biological diversity and the events will focus on the threat to biodiversity from genetic engineering and GM crops.

May 17 (11:00-13:00) Current situtuation in USA, the world’s leading GMO producing country Place: Sangiin Giin Hall B107, Nagatacho station, Tokyo (Please meet in the lobby at 10:40) (500Yen)

May 18 (13:30-16:30) Genetically modified organisms, a threat to biological diversity Place: Seiryo Hall, Nagatacho station, Tokyo (1000 Yen)

May 20 (13:30-15:30) Opportunity to ask Paige Tomaselli about the GM food labelling initiative campaign and the efforts to stop Monsanto in the US Place: Tokyo Shohi Seikatsu Center, Iidabashi Central Plaza, 16F, Room A (500 Yen)

(Japanese experts will also speak at these meetings. Interpretation to English will not be available.)

Read more about the Center for Food Safety!

Top photo from the campaign for better food labelling in California

Katsutaka Idogawa, former Mayor of Futaba Town, the site of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, will travel to France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Switzerland. He will be reaching out to municipal leaders and citizen groups about the ongoing situation in Fukushima.

Seven days after the disasters of March 11, 2011, Idogawa temporarily evacuated town residents 45 kilometers away to Kawamata City. After witnessing ashes floating down from the sky, fallout from the explosion at reactor no. 1, and measuring radiation levels on his dosimeter, he came to the conclusion that the only way for the people of Futaba to be safe would be to be as far as possible. Without waiting governmental advice, he put the safety of the people first and arranged for the town to be relocated to Saitama prefecture.

On May 12 he will meet with citizen groups at Penly Nuclear Power Plant in Le Havre, France on the English Channel where fires in April 2012 led to radioactive leakage. From May 13-15, he will participate in an international conference aboard Peace Boat on its way to Stockholm.

Participants include:

Alain Correa (STOP EPR Network, France)
Olivier Florens (Europe Ecology – The Greens)
Iida Tetsunari (Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies)
Lena Lindahl (Sustainable Sweden Association)
Andrey Ozharovskiy (Nuclear expert with Bellona working to prevent the construction of a plant by Hitachi in Lithuania)
Sato Kenta (“Fukushima Conference”, from Iitate Village)
Yoshioka Tatsuya (Co-founder and Director of Peace Boat)

After meeting with experts, politicians and citizens working on nuclear issues at an event organized by ICAN Sweden, IPPNW Sweden, and the Sustainable Sweden Association on the 16th, he will travel to the location of planned nuclear power plant at Pyhäjoki, Finland to meet with the mayor and citizens on 17-18. May 19-22 he will visit Helsinki and Latvia, making his way to the Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Copenhagen for May 24-25. He will end his tour with a presentations to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information, please contact:
Meri Joyce, Peace Boat International Coordinator
Email: meri@peaceboat.gr.jp

(Note: Peace Boat is a Japanese NGO/NPO that made its first journey in 1983. For details about the current trip, click here. Read more about Peace Boat in English here!)

If you like your proteins from soy, you already love tofu, natto and miso, important traditional foods here in Japan since a long time ago. But much of that soy is imported. No! GMO Campaign initiated a campaign some 15 years ago to encourage farmers to grow the beans again, and educate people about the importance of local consumption.

On February 15, 2013, a meeting was held with expert Makushita Keiki and others, to take a look at the progress so far. Yes, consumption of locally grown soy is increasing. But still, Japanese consumers are depending to a very large extent on imported soy.

Take a look at the graph: Of all the soy used, some 27% are used directly as food (while 68% is used for food oils, some of which is later used as animal feed). 5% goes to seed and other uses.

The interesting part is the soy used for food: some 22% comes from domestically grown soy, while 78% is imported (from North and South America, and possibly China). This data does not say anything about the amount that is organically grown, and there is also a portion of imported soy that is Identity Preserved (IP) and thus qualifies as non-GMO.

Of the soy grown locally in Japan, most comes from Hokkaido. 58% of the domestic soy goes to tofu, 10% to special cooked bean dishes, 13% to natto, 8% to miso (for soup mostly). Some 11% goes to soy meal used for special traditional products, especially sweets.

Look for the 国産 (kokusan) label if you want to support the movement to grow more soybeans in Japan!

Read more about food labels over at The Ultimate Guide to Reading Food Labels in Japan!

Japan has a large number of consumer organizations, both on the national level and local level. Several, including Shufuren, Parc, Seikatsu Club, Pal System Coop, Dai-ichi Mamoru Kai, Shin Nihon Fujin Kai, have joined CUJ in protesting against the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Here is the latest statement from CUJ:

February 25, 2013

To: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Statement of Protest against the Japan-US Joint Statement Regarding TPP

According to the Japanese government’s communique about TPP after the talks between Prime Minister Abe and President Obama on February 23, 2013, that “it is not required to make a prior commitment to unilaterally eliminate all tariffs upon joining the TPP negotiations.”

However, in a news conference in response to this, Prime Minister Abe mentioned that there was no explicit promise regarding tariff sanctions during his meeting with President Obama. Meanwhile, the governing coalition of LDP and New Komeito is leaning towards announcing that Japan will participate in the TPP negotiations as early as possible.

Prime Minister Abe has then gone on to talk about formally announcing participation in TPP negotiations during speeches in the Upper and Lower House Parliament sessions on February 28, 2013.

This is in sharp contrast to the LDP election promises during last December’s general election, to oppose Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations if abolishing tariffs without restriction becomes a precondition. Five conditions were included in LDP’s election manifesto, including protecting the country’s health insurance system, which covers all citizens, and food safety standards, as well as not accepting numerical targets for imports of cars and other manufactured products. LDP also promised it would not liberalize financial services or rules regarding public procurement. The TPP also stipulates a new type of dispute resolution system, known as Investor-state Dispute System (ISD) that will allow foreign corporations or financial investors to sue governments in other countries. The comment by the Prime Minister only five days after his meeting with the US President can only be construed as an absurd violation of LDP’s election promises in key areas.

We regard it as unacceptable that such infringements of the rights of people can be proposed, that will infringe on our lives and all aspects of society. This is related to governance and Japan’s national structure, its politics, and issues related to important national policy-making.

We strongly protest against your actions.

Consumers Union of Japan

Nishi-Waseda 1-9-19-207
Shinjuku, Tokyo
Japan
TEL 03-5155-4765
FAX 03-5155-4767

CUJ JR 157 (pdf) Japan Resources No 157

We have had a busy fall going into winter, and still some snow this morning here in Nishi-Waseda, Tokyo. Lots of political changes too, while we continue our focus on energy issues and food safety.

Feel free to download the pdf file of Japan Resources No 157 and print it for your library.

- Editors

Contents:
Do Not Approve GM Salmon!
BSE In Brazil
After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: The Roles of Consumers and Farmers
Proposal for a Basic Law to Abandon Nuclear Power!
Highlights from the Negotiations in Hyderabad about Biological Diversity
Stop TPP Action/Occupy Monsanto
Protect Biodiversity from GMOs: Hyderabad MOP6 Meeting