AKITA, Jun. 30 – A traditional summer product, junsai, is in the peak harvest season in Mitane-cho, Akita Prefecture. The town is Japan’s largest producer of junsai, a perennial aquatic plant of the Nymphaeaceae family known as water shield in English. The harvest season will continue until August. The slippery vegetable appears in an old poem by Kenji Miyazawa, The Last Farewell. People eat the sprout that grows in water and is covered in a viscous jelly. The transparent jelly shines like ice, refreshingly, and people like it for its unique springy texture and smoothness. It was once a natural product found in swamps in Mitane-cho. However, in the 1970s, … Continue reading →

TOKYO, July 2 — As the print circulation of newspapers has been declining due to a shift towards digital media, Tonichi Printing Co., a major newspaper printing firm in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, has launched a new business of growing wood ear mushrooms.   The business started as an in-house project of The Mainichi Newspapers Shutoken Center Co., Tonichi Printing’s subsidiary located in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, which operates a newspaper printing plant. It is the firm’s second project of starting a new business after medaka Japanese killfish breeding.   The firm hopes such attempts to monetize new businesses will also lead to revitalizing its employees.   An unused space inside a … Continue reading →

TOKYO, June 24 — The production of glass bottled milk has been declining in Japan, with the total production volume in 2023 dropping by 70 percent from a decade before.   Most milk consumed at households and as part of school lunches now come in paperboard cartons because of the convenience in handling them.   Meanwhile, there is a constant demand for milk in glass bottles at such places as sento bathhouses where drinking one after a bath has been a custom for generations.   Moves have recently been seen to boost demand for bottled milk. A new bottled milk factory opened in the city of Fukuoka, and efforts are … Continue reading →

CHIBA & TOKYO, Jun. 24 – Two graduates from agricultural schools made their professional pitching debut in June. Koshiro Hiroike (22), a pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines who graduated the School of Agriculture, the Tokai University (Kumamoto Prefecture), made his first mound appearance as a starting pitcher in a game against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars on June 21, giving up three consecutive homers and three runs in the first two innings. Also, Yuto Nakamura (22), a pitcher for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and a graduate from Nagasaki Prefectural Isahaya Agricultural High School (Nagasaki Prefecture), made his first appearance as a starting pitcher in a game against the Orix Buffaloes … Continue reading →

OSAKA, Jun. 12 – A floating spherical weeding robot with dents on its surface gathered attention at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. The idea is to control the growth of waterweed by turning the water cloudy with the robot rolling around afloat. A consortium formed by the Prefectural University of Kumamoto and the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kumamoto College, demonstrated the robot as a means to help grow rice more easily in rice fields with some difficulties, such as stepped rice terraces. The robot was exhibited at the expo for three days, until June 11, as part of its weekly program, “Necessities of Life: Food, Clothing and Shelter.” The robot … Continue reading →