Category Archives: Civil Rights

G7 Meeting Action Day in Miyazaki

Civil Rights, Food, Food Security, Organic Agriculture/Food,

Action Day to Bring Citizens’ and Farmers’ Voices to the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting
Date: April 23, 12:00-15:30
The G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Miyazaki Prefecture on April 22-23. What will be discussed at the meeting, what are the necessary international cooperation and political decisions, and what is needed to promote policies to protect food sovereignty in Japan? The Japan Family Farmers Movement (Nouminren) calls for your participation in the action and study exchange meeting in Miyazaki on the 23rd to promote agroecology and shift to an agricultural policy that supports small-scale and family farming in the pursuit of a sustainable society.

Stop the Food and Agriculture Crisis: Action Day to bring the voices of citizens and farmers to the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting
Date: Sunday, April 23
Action details:
12:00-12:45: Standing action

Place: In front of Miyazaki Yamagata-ya (department store) 5 min. walk from West Exit of JR Miyazaki Station
Address: 3-4-12 Tachibanadori Higashi, Miyazaki-shi, Miyazaki

13:30-15:30 Learning and exchange session Combined with online
Main presenter: Seiko Uchida (Co-president of PARC)
Naoya Matsudaira (Member of the Smallholder Agricultural Society of Japan, Representative Director of AMNet)
Toshiro Hasegawa (President, Japan Family Farmers Movement)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Press Event: Consumers in Japan Oppose Increased Military Spending

Civil Rights, Peace,

Joint statement: We, consumers, seek a peaceful society that respects life and livelihood. We oppose the possession of an enemy base attack capability (counterattack capability) and increased military expenditure.

On 6 February 2023, consumer organisations from across Japan jointly issued a joint statement opposing the Kishida Government’s proposal for a pre-emptive strike in the name of an enemy base attack and an increase in defence expenditure. The call was made by the Consumers Union of Japan and Shufuren. In response to the call, consumer organisations, co-operatives and other groups from across the country endorsed the statement, which was announced at a press conference held in Tokyo.

The fact that national and local consumer consumers across the country have expressed their opposition to the government’s proposed major military build-up shows that a sense of crisis about these government moves is gradually spreading.

On 16 December 2022, the Kishida Government made a Cabinet decision to revise the ‘Three Security Documents’, including the National Security Strategy. The ‘Three Security Documents’ clearly state the policy of possessing an ‘enemy base attack capability (counterattack capability)’ and increasing Japan’s defence expenditure to 43 trillion yen. An enemy base attack capability is the capability to strike within the territory of another country. It carries the risk of a first strike, which is forbidden by international law, and is contrary to Japan’s Constitution, which states that there will be no war. Deterrence to avoid war is not a matter of enemy base attack capability (counterattack capability), but of diplomacy through dialogue.

We, 28 consumer organisations, work to solve various consumer problems that arise in our daily lives. It goes without saying once again that our activities are only possible because we are guaranteed a peaceful society. We continue to confirm the importance of pacifism in accordance with the Constitution at the National Consumer Congress, which we have held every year since 1957. Consumer cooperatives, which together with consumer organisations are responsible for Japan’s active consumer movement, have adopted the slogan ‘For peace and a better life’. Underlying this is a strong will that war must never happen again, and must not be allowed to happen.

We reaffirm that the basis of the consumer movement is to reject everything that hinders peaceful living and threatens life, and we oppose the possession of an enemy base attack capability (counterattack capability). We oppose the increased defence expenditure in Japan, seeking a peaceful society that respects life and livelihood.

6 February 2023

(Signed by 28 consumer organisations, including Shufuren, Consumers Union of Japan, Tokyo Shodanren, Kanagawa Shodanren)

(Japanese: https://nishoren.net/cuj/?p=34)

Nikkan Berita: http://www.nikkanberita.com/read.cgi?id=202302062056521

Asahi Shimbun: https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASR265K4YR26UTIL01M.html

Protest Against Japan’s Military Buildup

Civil Rights, Peace

6 February Press Conference on the Joint Statement of Consumer Organisations:

We Protest against Japan’s Military Buildup and Increased Spending on Weapons

Date and time: 6 February (Mon), 10:00-11:00

Venue: Plaza F, 3F, Shufuren Conference Room

Programme:

10:00 Opening remarks and explanation on participation in Zoom (Moderator, Shufuren)

10:05 Comments on this joint statement from the calling organisations (Consumer Union of Japan and Shufuren)

10:15 Message from Kanagawa Shodanren, supporting organisation

10:20 Introduction of messages from supporting organisations (Koketsu Michiyo, CUJ)

10:25 Question and answer session

10:45 About the future

10:50 End

Zoom participation will be limited to the media and other reporters

Language: Japanese only

 

Participate in the Photo Submission Action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Civil Rights, Food, Food Security, ,

You are invited to participate in the action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

*Photo submissions will be accepted from October 16, 2022.

Every year, 16 October is World Food Day. Originally, this day was set up with the hope that people around the world would be able to enjoy a rich dietary life. However, the world’s food supply is now controlled by a few multinational corporations such as Bayer and Corteva, and as a result, food is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people in developed countries, leaving many people without food on a daily basis. This trend is becoming more and more pronounced as the application of advanced technologies such as genetic engineering.

We, together with family farmers, small farmers’ groups and citizens’ groups around the world, have been opposing the domination of food by multinational corporations. We will promote the TABEKIME Campaign, an abbreviation for “We decide what we eat ourselves,” which was very popular last year, starting from World Food Day this year.

Click here to see the contributions, with many photos for the TABEKIME Campaign in 2021.

Background of the TABEKIME Campaign:

World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October, as designated by the United Nations.

Eating is the basis of life. Despite this, many people around the world are suffering from hunger, even though a lot of food is produced. The biggest reason for this is the domination of food by multinational corporations and the uneven distribution of food in developed countries. Currently, the multinational corporations that control food are represented by agrochemical companies that develop genetically engineered crops and other products.

The company that has long reigned at the center of this domination has been the U.S. company Monsanto. For this reason, citizens around the world have been marking this day as Anti-Monsanto Day. Monsanto has now been absorbed by Bayer AG of Germany, and new genome-editing technology has been introduced. Yet, the structure of food domination by multinational corporations has only strengthened, not weakened.

We are launching the TABEKIME Campaign again this year, as we did last year, in order to assert that we decide what we eat, not what is given to us by the multinational corporations. The way to participate is simple. We hope you will join us and appeal to the world.

The name of the campaign is

I decide what I eat.

I decide what I make.

Not for big companies.

(Abbreviated name: TABEKIME Campaign 2022)

Purpose of the Campaign:
The purpose of this campaign is to express our will by taking pictures of message boards to protect our food from being plundered by big business.

Campaign Organizations:
Consumers Union of Japan
No! GMO Campaign

How to Participate:
Please take a picture of yourself, the food you want to protect, or the production site of the food you want to protect, and post the picture together with your message board in the following way. You can post as many photos as you want. The message board can be downloaded from the following pdf link. You can use the official name laid out (English version) or you can write your own message on the board. Post your photo(s) using this Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/806047030062792

Here are pdf files that you can print out and use to take your photo(s):

Tabekime

Tabekime blank

Or use these jpg images:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Will Not be Complicit in War, We Will Not Let it Happen

Civil Rights, North-South, Peace

We will not be complicit in war, and we will not let it happen.

https://nishoren.net/new-information/17460

Taking advantage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Japanese government has announced plans to maintain an “enemy base attack capability” and to increase defense expenditures to more than 2% of GDP *.

Under Article 9 of the Constitution, which clearly states the renunciation of war and the non-retention of military forces, a major shift is about to take place in Japan’s policy of defending itself exclusively against invasion.

Since the Abe administration took office in 2012, the Secret Protection Law, the Security Law, and the Conspiracy Crime Act have already been passed, overcoming opposition from citizens, to bring about a wartime regime.

Finally, there is a growing movement to revise the Peace Constitution itself.

We are determined not to be complicit in any war and not to let any war happen, and we will appeal against war together with those who are fighting in their own spheres of life.

*This is twice the 1% of GDP ratio that has been used to halt the war so far, amounting to about 11 trillion yen, or 10% of the national budget.

Yoko Sugiura, Editor-in-Chief of CUJ magazine