There will be a Soil & Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening.
A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Katou Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco.
Website with more info (J) here
The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013. This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to refelct the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima.
Location: Hosei University, Sotobori Campus (between Iidabashi and Ichigaya stations on the Sobu line)
Tickets: 1800 Yen (pre order) 2500 Yen ( at the entrance)
For more information please check the official website (J).
The Civil Society stakeholders for the Brunei round of TPP negotiations are very disappointed that no formal report from the Chief Negotiators was presented, nor the opportunity for stakeholders to ask questions in a forum where all could hear the answers.
At this round of TPP negotiations the stakeholder session ended with a mingling of negotiators with stakeholders in a stand-up format. While we found the negotiators to be friendly and open to questions, the setting did not enable many stakeholders to ask their questions and the answers given were not available to everyone.
There were a number of questions we would liked to have heard answers to, of these the most pressing are:
We continue to urge for greater transparency and accountability, and we ask again for the release of a draft negotiating text.
Signed:
Hadyn Green
Consumer NZ
Yoshiko Matsuda
What is TPP?
Trish Hepworth
Australian Digital Alliance
Patricia Ranald
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
Yasuaki Yamaura
Consumers Union of Japan
Yasuo Kondo
People’s Action Against TPP (Japan)
Krista L. Cox
Knowledge Ecology International
What Will Happen With The Electric Utility Law Revision?
June 20, 2013 Symposium
Japan is debating the future of its electric power system. A special committee at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry made recommendations for reform in February, 2013, and a bill to revise parts of the Electric Utility Law was submitted to the Parliament after a Cabinet decision in April. However, there is concern that the bill has watered down many of the proposals. It is doubtful if the bill can be enacted during the current session of the Parliament and we sense dark clouds gathering over the anticipated reform, which had just started to look promising.
After the earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11, 2011 we face a situation where parts of the country have been so contaminated with dangerous radioactivity due to the meltdown at the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi that it is impossible for people to live there. Society rapidly needs to be converted into relying on a wide range of power sources including wind, solar, cogeneration, etc., in addition to large-scale expansion of energy-saving efforts. This is the time for structural reform of the electric power system, and we need to move forward on creating a realistic work schedule to make this happen.
Civil society supports the Electric Utility Law revision. In this symposium, we will debate electric power reform and discuss its merits for consumers, as well as learn about the design of the electricity market. We will also hear from energy consultant Yamada Hikaru about the current situation in Europe and North America.
Organizers: e-Shift (Association for Nuclear Power Phase-out and New Energy Policies) / Consumers Union of Japan / Electric Power Reform Project
Date: June 20, 2013 (17:00-19:30)
Place: House of Representatives Multipurpose Hall, Tokyo (衆議院第二議員会館)
Subway: Nagatacho or Kokkaigijidoumae st.
Entrance: 500 Yen
(Japanese only)
About e-Shift…
Tokyo, Japan June 4, 2013
Press Release:
Stronger Inspection System Needed for American Wheat
Unapproved genetically modified (GM) wheat has been found in Oregon, U.S. The No! GMO Campaign and Consumers Union of Japan have written to Japan’s Ministry of Health and to the Ministry of Agriculture on June 4, 2013, urging the government to make sure that this GM wheat does not enter Japan. “The GM inspection system at the time of import should be strengthened immediately so that no GM wheat will enter Japan,“ says Amagasa Keisuke, chairperson of the No! GMO Campaign, which was founded in 1996 as the first GM crops were grown in North America, including GM soy and GM corn.
Although Monsanto Co. was testing GM wheat in 16 states from 1998 to 2005, including in Washington, Nevada, and Kansas no permission was ever given for commercial cultivation. USDA says it does not understand the reason why GM wheat has appeared or how much it has spread, or to what extent it is now present in the U.S. It is not impossible that such GM wheat has been exported to Japan. “We ask the Japanese government to urgently investigate if GM wheat is found in Japan,” notes Amagasa Keisuke.
The No! GMO Campaign and Consumers Union note that Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have opted for the import suspension of wheat from Oregon. There is a possibility that the GM wheat in question was mixed with wheat grown in Oregon. This shows the urgent need to further tighten up the GM inspection system conducted at the time of import so that GM wheat may not enter Japan.
Contact:
Amagasa Keisuke, No! GMO Campaign
Consumers Union of Japan
Nishi-Waseda 1-9-19-207
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Japan
Website: www.nishoren.org/en/