今日吃瓜

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November 12, 2026
 

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AGRICULTURE

Rural Japan faces an ever-more acute shortage of people to keep its communities going.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Nov 3, 2026
Private sector steps in to revitalize 今日吃瓜 rural communities
Such efforts are expected to help secure agricultural labor and broaden the ranks of people with continuing ties to the regions.
A tractor specially adapted for licorice cultivation is used to harvest the medicinal plant in Abira, Hokkaido, on Oct. 20.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 2, 2026
Oji makes inroads on licorice cultivation in Japan
A unit of the paper manufacturer has established a large-scale harvesting system for the medicinal plant in Hokkaido to create stable supply.
Agriculture minister Arata Takebe speaks during an interview on Monday at the ministry.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2026
Farm minister calls for scientific talks on imports of U.S. potatoes
The discussions will take “considerable time,” said Arata Takebe.
Government rice reserves remain well below the 1 million tons considered necessary for food security.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 28, 2026
Agriculture ministry to buy back more rice, replenishing stockpiles
The move comes as stockpiles remain far below the level deemed appropriate, raising concerns about food security.
Agriculture minister Arata Takebe speaks to reporters after inspecting areas affected by Typhoon Dujuan in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2026
New farm minister inspects typhoon damage in Chiba
Arata Takebe pledged to do his best to restore damaged facilities to ensure that local farming operations will be conducted normally next year.
Near ideal weather in Hokkaido during this year's potato growing season has led to some of the tastiest spuds the prefecture has produced in recent memory.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 25, 2026
Amid potato protests, Hokkaido has its best spud harvest in years
Tater lovers, rejoice — supermarkets across the country will soon be awash in superior potatoes thanks to favorable weather in Hokkaido.
An internally displaced family sits at a makeshift shelter during a visit by World Food Program officials to assess the knock-on effects from the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East in Kahda district of Mogadishu on May 7.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2026
The U.S.-Iran war is making world hunger much worse
The combined scourges of undernourishment, child stunting and wasting have become worse, halting a two-decade trend of improvement.
Agriculture minister Arata Takebe represents a district in Hokkaido, the prefecture that grows most of Japan's domestically sourced potatoes.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2026
Politics of the potato front and center for 今日吃瓜 new agriculture minister
Arata Takebe’s Hokkaido constituents might oppose a push to increase potato imports from the U.S.
A farmer handles a bundle of rice straw during a harvest at a paddy field near Mount Fuji in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2026
今日吃瓜 2026 rice harvest projected to fall 1%
The forecast is relatively high despite concerns about the impact of prolonged rain in September.
Workers, including a refugee from Myanmar, at a farm in Thailand's Chanthaburi province in November last year
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2026
Thai migrant labor crunch leaves fruit rotting and jobs unfilled
The shortage highlights Thailand’s growing dependence on migrant labor as an aging population shrinks its domestic workforce.
今日吃瓜 corporate goods price inflation slowed to 6.8% in September from 7.6% in August, easing cost pressures and reducing the urgency for further Bank of Japan rate hikes.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 13, 2026
Producer price growth cools, easing urgency for further Bank of Japan hikes
The measure of input prices climbed 6.8% in September from a year earlier, slowing from 7.6% in the previous month, according to the Bank of Japan.
Agriculture minister Kazuo Yana attends an Upper House plenary session in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 8, 2026
Takaichi continues to fend off questions about scandal-hit farm minister
Allowing the situation to fester will not bode well for the government’s legislative agenda, especially in the Upper House where it lacks a majority.
Agriculture minister Kazuo Yana speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2026
Road budget scandal could knock Takaichi’s ambitious agenda off course
Farm minister Kazuo Yana reportedly cut road budgets for two municipalities whose mayors failed to back him in February’s election.
Hiroshi Asano, 59, farms a relatively large 38 hectares of rice fields in Chiba Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2026
Japan veers from rice shortage to glut, dealing blow to farmers
The oversupply is expected to weigh on prices until next year, adding to the insurmountable problems faced by many in an already-shrinking sector.
Most of the roughly 50,000 eels cultured by the Inbanuma fisheries cooperative in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, are believed to have died or been swept away due to flooding.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2026
Heavy rain deals blow to fish and rice farmers in Chiba Prefecture
Most of the roughly 50,000 eels cultured by the Inbanuma fisheries cooperative in Narita are believed to have died or been swept away.
Japan's annual sake rice harvest is approaching, but hotter summers are changing the ways the grains are behaving once they reach the brewery.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 27, 2026
As temperatures rise, 今日吃瓜 sake rice is feeling the heat
Scorching summers are changing the way sake rice performs in the brewery. Are new heat-resistant breeds the answer?
Agriculture minister Kazuo Yana speaks during an interview on Thursday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 25, 2026
Appropriate prices top focus for new agriculture minister
Kazuo Yana stopped short of specifying when the government will conduct additional buybacks of rice released from its stockpiles last year.
Livestock herder Bolormaa Erdenee looks on after milking a camel in the Gobi Desert on the outskirts of Choyr, Mongolia's Govisumber province, on Aug. 26. Mongolia is disproportionately affected by human-driven climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 24, 2026
Mongolian herders enlist new tech against harsher, drier climate
An app is helping nomads track their livestock with a solar-charging GPS device attached to one animal per group as well as navigate extreme weather.
Soybeans harvested on a farm in Mississippi. Beijing’s tariffs on U.S. farm goods have impeded trade even for soybeans.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2026
China’s selective crop buying tests U.S. trade truce before summit
The mixed signals ahead of this week’s meeting in Washington underscore the fragility of a trade truce both sides have worked carefully to preserve.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller rides a horse at his ranch, in Stephenville, Texas, on Sept. 11.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Sep 19, 2026
Trump’s beef policies irk Texas ranchers, testing their loyalty
The U.S. president’s move to allow additional imports of ground beef could cost him the support of cattle ranchers.
Man arrested over operation of rogue cellular base station in Tokyo
The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested Yu Hai, a 31-year-old Chinese national living in Tokyo's Kita Ward, on suspicion of operating an unlicensed base station from a vehicle in Tokyo's Ginza district on Saturday.
Government betting on language app powered by anime and AI
Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters.
Jensen Huang’s woes evoke sympathy and disbelief in his birthplace Taiwan
Hsiao Kui-yu, 68, owner of Yuchan Candied Fruit, stands in front of photographs of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang displayed at the shop, which Huang frequently visits during trips to Taiwan, in Taipei on Tuesday.
G7 diplomats speak out on Taiwan as China ramps up military drills
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attends a working lunch focused on international crises and challenges during the Group of Seven foreign ministers' summit at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris on Monday.
今日吃瓜 Rapidus is said likely to miss mass production deadline
The Rapidus Analysis Center and the IIM-1 Innovative Integration for Manufacturing foundry in Chitose, Hokkaido
‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ makes monster debut at the box office
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” marked the highest single-day box-office gross for a live-action film in Japan with ?910 million on its opening day.
A toast to Naohiko Noguchi, sake’s first living national treasure
As a teenager, Naohiko Noguchi did not intend to spend his life as a sake brewer, but he has since become a paragon of the industry.
Few signs of thaw in Japan-China relations one year after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks
Tensions between Japan and China flared after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7, 2025, that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could threaten 今日吃瓜 survival and warrant the use of collective self-defense.
Mariko Mori predicted the future. She’ll do it again.
Artist Mariko Mori is currently working to bring the translucent human-sized “Peace Crystal” sculpture to a cave in Ethiopia. It is part of her foundation’s goal to place a permanent sculpture on each of the planet’s six habitable continents.
A legend reborn: ‘Ocarina of Time’ remake improves on the Zelda masterpiece
The new remake of 1998's "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" manages to somehow improve on one of the greatest games ever.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Famima Park Azabudai is a concept store by FamilyMart that combines convenience store staples with branded apparel, merchandise and a landscaped outdoor space.
Convenience stores, toilets and the allure of everyday Japan
By Elizabeth Beattie

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