The same as any other all over the world:
"Local reform effort launched to save fading farms in Japan" by Anna Fifield | Washington Post October 26, 2014
YABU, Japan — When tending to her rice paddies in this remote, mountainous part of Japan became too arduous, Sakae Tanigaki brought in some young guys to help out.
Now, a bunch of 70-somethings do most of the work on the terraced hillside. That means the 85-year-old Tanigaki can stick to the flat fields.
‘‘My ancestors developed this land long ago. So as long as I’m able, I feel that I need to work this land and keep it in good shape,’’ Tanigaki, in a purple flowery smock, said as she sat on a rock in the sun outside her house, about 400 miles west of Tokyo.
After her husband died two decades ago, Tanigaki tended the fields by herself. But now men from the local ‘‘silver center’’ — a kind of temp agency for retirees — are helping out, and she’s been able to cut back her hours to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or so every day.
Tanigaki doesn’t have much choice but to work — there’s no one else around here to do it.
‘‘There are no jobs for young people in Yabu, so they all leave,’’ said Tanigaki, a great-grandmother whose offspring have little interest in living this kind of labor-intensive life in the countryside.
But now the local government, with support from Tokyo, is launching an experimental reform project aimed at reviving Yabu’s struggling farming base. The authorities hope to make working here more attractive for people and companies, and to loosen the powerful agricultural lobby’s hold on the sector, which makes it difficult for outsiders to buy land.
Yabu is a patchwork of small fields, wedged between train tracks and houses, that are cobbled together into farms. Many of the houses, some with traditional tiled roofs, have seen better days.
The town suffers from the same demographic scourges as other farming areas of Japan. Its population has been dropping, almost halving in the past 50 years. Meanwhile, the average age is rising: The typical farmer is 70.7 years old.
Even as they are faced with literally dying out, farmers across Japan are resisting changes to their way of life. Their lobby group, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Group — also known as the JA — is also fiercely opposing the changes that would be required if Japan were to sign up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.
For now, negotiations between Japan and the United States, the two biggest players in the proposed 12-nation free-trade bloc, are going nowhere, partly because of Japan’s unwillingness to budge on agriculture.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, has promised to protect ‘‘sacred cows’’ — including rice, beef, and dairy — from the deal. Rice carries an almost spiritual significance here, not to mention a 778 percent tariff.
But in Yabu, local politicians and farmers aren’t waiting for the trigger of the TPP to make big changes. Japan’s government has designated the area a test bed for much-needed reform in the highly regulated sector.
‘‘Agriculture is the foundation of Yabu, but it’s now at crisis point,’’ said Sakae Hirose, the mayor of Yabu and the architect of the reforms. ‘‘So what I’m trying to do is to revitalize the foundation of this area.’’
Most of the farmers around here are part-timers who tend small plots around their day jobs, or people such as Tanigaki, who have farming in their blood. But 12 percent of the farmland around Yabu has been abandoned as residents become too old to tend to it. If someone stops farming a plot of land, the whole system of irrigation is affected, making it harder for neighbors to keep growing crops.
Bringing in new blood is the key. ‘‘We need to create an environment where it’s easier to farm,’’ Hirose said. The plans include giving local authorities the power to take control of abandoned land and consolidate it, and allowing private companies and new farmers to use it.
But perhaps the most important change is to the way that farmland sales are handled. Currently, selling land is a drawn-out, bureaucratic process, often subject to local biases. In Yabu, municipal workers have taken control of the process from the vested interests on the local agriculture committee.
Amazing how people jealously guard their homes, huh?
The Yabu committee, representing farmers, was staunchly opposed to Hirose’s plans in the beginning but slowly came around, realizing they were in a reform-or-die situation.
Submit to corporate rule and domination, or die!
‘‘If we don’t do anything, then of course the rate of deterioration will increase,’’ said Tadao Otani, the 69-year-old head of the committee. ‘‘We don’t have any time to spare. We don’t know if Yabu will exist in 20 or 30 or 40 years.’’
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Looks like a bowl of rice for breakfast today. Enjoy, readers.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
You didn't like it, and I can't say I blame you.
I like this:
"Japanese in North Korea for talks on abductions" Associated Press October 28, 2014
PYONGYANG, North Korea — A high-ranking Japanese delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Monday to assess the progress of a North Korean investigation into the fates of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ’80s.
The abduction issue has long been a major obstacle in the ties between North Korea and Japan, which have no formal diplomatic relations.
The delegation, led by Junichi Ihara, head of the Asia and Oceania affairs bureau at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, is to stay in North Korea for four days. Officials are to discuss the issue Tuesday and Wednesday.
In what was seen as a significant breakthrough after years of stalemate, North Korea agreed in May to launch a new probe into the abductions. In exchange, Japan agreed to ease some unilateral sanctions on North Korea, though it continues to enforce sanctions backed by the United Nations over North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile programs.
After initial optimism in Japan, progress in North Korea’s investigation has been slower than Tokyo had hoped.
But they are at least talking.
In September, Ihara and his North Korean counterpart, Song Il Ho, held a meeting in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. Japan was hoping then to receive a preliminary report on the investigation, but none was presented.
In 2002, North Korea admitted it kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens to train spies in Japanese language and culture.
Five were allowed to return to Japan the same year but North Korea said others had died or never entered the North. Japan believes hundreds more may have been abducted and some may still be alive.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said the delegation is being sent to convey that the resolution of the issue is a high priority for Japan. He has promised not to relent until all of the abductees are returned to Japan or accounted for.
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Also see: Death penalty urged for S. Korea ferry captain
I oppose that in all circumstances now, even for $tink bankers and war criminal politicians. Into the Gitmo, 'er, hole you go for life. That's the ticket. Let 'em live and suffer. Do unto others. Taste own medicine. Reap what ye sow. Choose your cliche.
