A world-wide debate about the dangers of plastic pollution has led to the introduction of stricter laws in many countries. Japan seems to lag behind so far, but consumers can start reducing the use of plastics in many ways. Many people already bring their cloth bags to the supermarket when you go shopping. In some shops, you get a 2 Yen reduction on the price, but if everyone was serious about it, and the amount raised to 10 Yen or even more, the effect would be immediate. In the Sugiura household, we tried to reduce the amount of plastic wrapping for food. It wasn’t an immediate success as not everyone…
In the News: “Gov’t committee’s GMO deregulation proposal too hasty: consumer groups, experts”
Consumers Union of Japan has been active in the debate about regulation of GMOs since the mid 1990 and firmly believe the new technologies, such as gene editing, must be strictly regulated. CUJ’s stance is that any such experiments should be stopped to avoid serious adverse effects on human health and the environment. August 21, 2018 (Mainichi Japan) TOKYO — Consumer groups are taking aim at Aug. 20 recommendations by an Environment Ministry expert committee that some genetically modified organisms (GMO) be deregulated. The expert committee proposed deregulation of organisms edited to remove or deactivate certain genes as opposed to adding new code, but critics are claiming this is “the…
International Symposium: Report from South Korea Meeting About Labelling of GM Food
International Symposium: Report from South Korea Meeting About Labelling of GM Food The demand for better labelling of genetically modified food is rising in South Korea. With citizens taking the lead, over 200,000 people signed a petition in March, 2018 and was officially submitted to the government, but no response has yet been coming forward. On July 19, 2018 an international symposium will be held in Seoul with invited specialists from Japan and the United States, to discuss the current status of GM food labelling. The hosts are different South Korean civil society organizations. Consumers Union of Japan and Seikatsu Club will be representing Japan. We will hold an event…
Japan Resources – No 171
Please click here CUJ-JR-171 for the latest issue of Japan Resources, our English newsletter. This time, we can’t help but muse over the issue that the country, and the world, is in the grip of football fever as the Football World Cup is promoted as never before. Large companies take this opportunity to splash billions of Yen not for the sake of encouraging healthy exercise but to push more junk food to the couch potatoes watching the games. Among them, food and beverage corporations Coca Cola, McDonald’s and Budweizer probably do not make a single healthy product between them. We hope you will continue to stay updated with CUJ’s activities…
Food Industry & Supermarkets
Much has happened since the first supermarkets opened in Japan. The first is said to be Kinokuniya in Tokyo (1953), followed by Maruwa in Kita-Kyushu (1956). The initial reaction was that they would sell cheap and bad food, with cynics sneering at the katakana name, “suupa” (short for super). The expansion of the country’s transportation network made it possible to create high growth and massive profits were made. The other factor behind the success that should not be forgotten was the appearance of artificial food additives. Bread with up to 30 food additives became the norm, and could be sold cheaply because of its long shelf-life. Products could also be…