Consumers Union of Japan – Page 46 – Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

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Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

Energy Reform Symposium

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…

(more…)

By fridfrid | 19/06/2013 | Energy, Energy Efficiency, Nuclear, Renewable Energy |

Japan’s Consumers Say “No” to GM Wheat

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/

By fridfrid | 12/06/2013 | Biodiversity, Biotechnology |

Biodiversity Day Event: Paige Tomaselli, Center for Food Safety

We are happy to welcome Paige Tomaselli, senior staff attorney at US-based Center for Food Safety, who will be speaking at 3 events in Tokyo in May. She is invited by Consumers Union of Japan, No! GMO Campaign and Japan Citizens’ Network for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. May 18 is International day of biological diversity and the events will focus on the threat to biodiversity from genetic engineering and GM crops.

May 17 (11:00-13:00) Current situtuation in USA, the world’s leading GMO producing country Place: Sangiin Giin Hall B107, Nagatacho station, Tokyo (Please meet in the lobby at 10:40) (500Yen)

May 18 (13:30-16:30) Genetically modified organisms, a threat to biological diversity Place: Seiryo Hall, Nagatacho station, Tokyo (1000 Yen)

May 20 (13:30-15:30) Opportunity to ask Paige Tomaselli about the GM food labelling initiative campaign and the efforts to stop Monsanto in the US Place: Tokyo Shohi Seikatsu Center, Iidabashi Central Plaza, 16F, Room A (500 Yen)

(Japanese experts will also speak at these meetings. Interpretation to English will not be available.)

Top photo from the campaign for better food labelling in California

By fridfrid | 08/05/2013 | Biodiversity, Biotechnology |

Peace Boat Anti-Nuclear Campaign In Europe

Katsutaka Idogawa, former Mayor of Futaba Town, the site of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, will travel to France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Switzerland. He will be reaching out to municipal leaders and citizen groups about the ongoing situation in Fukushima.

Seven days after the disasters of March 11, 2011, Idogawa temporarily evacuated town residents 45 kilometers away to Kawamata City. After witnessing ashes floating down from the sky, fallout from the explosion at reactor no. 1, and measuring radiation levels on his dosimeter, he came to the conclusion that the only way for the people of Futaba to be safe would be to be as far as possible. Without waiting governmental advice, he put the safety of the people first and arranged for the town to be relocated to Saitama prefecture.

On May 12 he will meet with citizen groups at Penly Nuclear Power Plant in Le Havre, France on the English Channel where fires in April 2012 led to radioactive leakage. From May 13-15, he will participate in an international conference aboard Peace Boat on its way to Stockholm.

Participants include:

Alain Correa (STOP EPR Network, France)
Olivier Florens (Europe Ecology – The Greens)
Iida Tetsunari (Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies)
Lena Lindahl (Sustainable Sweden Association)
Andrey Ozharovskiy (Nuclear expert with Bellona working to prevent the construction of a plant by Hitachi in Lithuania)
Sato Kenta (“Fukushima Conference”, from Iitate Village)
Yoshioka Tatsuya (Co-founder and Director of Peace Boat)

After meeting with experts, politicians and citizens working on nuclear issues at an event organized by ICAN Sweden, IPPNW Sweden, and the Sustainable Sweden Association on the 16th, he will travel to the location of planned nuclear power plant at Pyhäjoki, Finland to meet with the mayor and citizens on 17-18. May 19-22 he will visit Helsinki and Latvia, making his way to the Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Copenhagen for May 24-25. He will end his tour with a presentations to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information, please contact:
Meri Joyce, Peace Boat International Coordinator
Email: meri@peaceboat.gr.jp

(Note: Peace Boat is a Japanese NGO/NPO that made its first journey in 1983. For details about the current trip, click here. Read more about Peace Boat in English here!)

By fridfrid | 08/05/2013 | Energy, Nuclear, Renewable Energy |

Support Soybeans, Seriously…

If you like your proteins from soy, you already love tofu, natto and miso, important traditional foods here in Japan since a long time ago. But much of that soy is imported. No! GMO Campaign initiated a campaign some 15 years ago to encourage farmers to grow the beans again, and educate people about the importance of local consumption.

On February 15, 2013, a meeting was held with expert Makushita Keiki and others, to take a look at the progress so far. Yes, consumption of locally grown soy is increasing. But still, Japanese consumers are depending to a very large extent on imported soy.

Take a look at the graph: Of all the soy used, some 27% are used directly as food (while 68% is used for food oils, some of which is later used as animal feed). 5% goes to seed and other uses.

The interesting part is the soy used for food: some 22% comes from domestically grown soy, while 78% is imported (from North and South America, and possibly China). This data does not say anything about the amount that is organically grown, and there is also a portion of imported soy that is Identity Preserved (IP) and thus qualifies as non-GMO.

Of the soy grown locally in Japan, most comes from Hokkaido. 58% of the domestic soy goes to tofu, 10% to special cooked bean dishes, 13% to natto, 8% to miso (for soup mostly). Some 11% goes to soy meal used for special traditional products, especially sweets.

Look for the 国産 (kokusan) label if you want to support the movement to grow more soybeans in Japan!

Read more about food labels over at The Ultimate Guide to Reading Food Labels in Japan!

By fridfrid | 21/03/2013 | Biodiversity, Food |