Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 25 - July 1 [JCP]

1,000 people attends JCP symposium on agriculture in Hokkaido

In one of Japan’s major grain belts in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido, the Japanese Communist Party held symposium on June 29 to discuss how to revitalize Japanese agriculture.

About 1,000 farmers, consumers, agricultural cooperative officials, and municipal officials packed into a hall in Iwamizawa City.

JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi, who took part in the symposium as a panelist with a rice farmer, a former agricultural cooperative official, and an academic, explained the “4-point agriculture revitalization plan” which the JCP issued in March.

He stressed that the crux of the JCP proposal is “to rebuild Japan’s agriculture and increase Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate. By so doing can Japan make its responsive contribution to the international community,” Ichida added.

Ichida emphasized the need to establish a price support system as a way to raise the food self-sufficiency rate to between 50-60 percent from the present 39 percent.

“Hokkaido’s agriculture serves as a major food supply base with cultivated acreage accounting for 25 percent of that of Japan and farm produce shipments 12.7 percent. This achievement has been made possible by the hard toil of farmers. This is why Hokkaido’s agriculture has a direct bearing on Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate,” he said.

Ichida also called on the participants to increase cooperation between farmers and consumers.

Otawara Takaaki, a professor emeritus of Hokkaido University, said, “The Liberal Democratic Party’s agriculture policy has damaged farmland, farm produce, and farmers’ hearts. An overhaul, not just a minor change, of LDP’s policy is called for.”