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: [...]
Open letter: Our demands regarding mad cow disease in Brazil To: Agriculture Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi From: Food Safety Citizens’ Watch January 9, 2013 Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on December 8, 2012 on its homepage that beef from Brazil was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and that import of beef [...]
On the first Tuesday of every month, demonstrations will be held in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Together we can stop the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)! Consumers Union of Japan has joined together with other organizations to strongly voice our opposition to TPP. Starting in August, 2012, a new campaign strategy [...]
An Appeal from the NO! GMO Campaign in Japan As part of our participation in Collective Rice Action (CORA) 2012 June 1, 2012 Protect life and biological diversity; oppose genetically modified food and TPP! We are very concerned about the efforts by the government, business interests, and mass media to get Japan to join the [...]
Press Release: From 22 May to 5 June 2012, 14 countries in Asia will band together for the COLLECTIVE RICE ACTION (CORA) 2012. People’s organisations, farmers, rural women, and rice consumers from PR China, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Iran will be “Reclaiming Our Rice and [...]
CUJ and other groups held a joint seminar about food additives at Shufuren in Tokyo on February 28, 2012. Invited speaker Nakamura Mikio made a detailed presentation about the problems, with a focus on recent developments. Japan has recently been forced to permit some 70 new food additives that are used in the US and [...]
Consumers Union of Japan and other organizations have jointly started a lecture series to discuss the problems with free trade agreements from the consumers’ perspective. During the APEC meeting in the fall of 2011, the Noda Administration expressed that Japan will participate in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Mass media made it appear as [...]
Withdraw Plans to Reexamine Japan’s Strict Measures against Mad Cow Disease December 9, 2011 Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) decided on December 9, 2011 to consider reexamining the legal measures against Mad Cow Disease and to ask the BSE committee of the Food Safety Commission to deal with the issue by the [...]
TPP: Rural Japan Under Serious Threat By “Operation Enemy” November 02, 2011 The TPP negotiations seem to be hi-jacked by American rice growers and large grain exporting corporations. This is in spite of the fact that liberalization of the rice sector would have devastating effects on rural Japan. We cannot understand why the Japanese [...]
By Yamaura Yasuaki, Consumers Union of Japan In October 2010, Prime Minister Kan suddenly declared in a policy speech to the Parliament that Japan would participate in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). There is strong opposition coming not only from farmer’s organizations and local authorities, but also among elected politicians within Prime Minister Kan’s own [...]
