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In response to an inquiry from the Animal Rights Center Japan, the organic restaurant “Organic Grill Kugenuma-kaigan” in Kanagawa responded that all the eggs they use are already cage free and they promised they will continue to use them. They also would support the cage-free declaration. In addition to the eggs, we found out that the chicken meat they use, imported from Hungary, meets the standards of the Better Chicken Commitment. Also, as for vegetables, they mainly use organic and pesticide-free vegetables. They use different kinds of vegetables based on the seasons. There is also a vegetable plate on the menu that vegan and vegetarian people can enjoy. What is…
HORIZON FARMS has made animal welfare declarations, one for stall-free in February, and then cage-free and better chicken in March. Horizon Farms, which has been procuring meat with commitment to animal welfare in rearing methods since its beginning, is a company that has always considered the inquiries of us animal protection groups seriously and thinks about what they can do for farm animals. The company, as noted on its website, only procures meat from farms that thoroughly take care of the reared animals. For this reason most is imported from overseas, but this time it will begin procuring cage-free eggs from a carefully selected domestic poultry farm; the triple declarations…
Internal survey published Website documenting the 50 days of a broiler chicken: https://50days.jp 2020/10/7 Tokyo: Animal Rights Center Japan has exposed the hidden reality behind Japan’s broiler poultry farming for the first time, and has published the “50DAYS” website to inform the consumers, compiling videos and reports following the 50-day life of a broiler chicken from August 18 to October 7, 2020. Today is the final day, when all 50 days of their lives have been revealed. Videos and Photos for the press (please use freely for the purpose of reporting) https://50days.jp/media/ The world viewed by Mei the broiler “Mei, a baby chicken, was born at a hatchery and was trucked…
Broiler chickens — 700 million are killed every year within Japan alone. Nearly double if imports are included. Japanese chickens suffer from overcrowding. Poultry farms in Japan are 1.7 times denser than in the EU and 1.8 times denser than in Brazil. While Thailand and other countries are improving, Japan is not improving. Why? Because people living in Japan do not know anything. They haven’t even noticed that chicken farms for meat in Japan are much worse than the world standard. A number like 700 million may paralyze your senses. But can you not tell by looking at the individual face and the facial expressions? That he or she is…
In August 2018, 8 people at Kagoshima University Hospital *1 and 2 people at Shizuoka City Hospital *2 were reported to have been infected with multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter (MDRA) and died. The number of deaths due to the effects of drug-resistant bacteria for which many antibiotics have become ineffective is expected to reach 10 million by 2050, and reports like this one make it more real. Animal agriculture and drug-resistant bacteria In Japan, the livestock sector accounts for about two-thirds of the amount of antibiotics (antibacterial agents) used, and so efforts in the livestock sector are urgent. Animal Rights Center Japan claims that animal welfare for farmed animals is necessary to…
In 2016, Koharu was living in battery cage. She became blind and unable to produce eggs, and was about to be killed. A warm-hearted worker rescued her and gave her to Animal Rights Center Japan. She got better soon after and now she is living with her new parent. She’s enjoying her life walking in a big yard and inside her parent’s house. Koharu’s true story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oIiD1wwstQ Right after she was rescued https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=nrT9f3e5Btg Animal Rights Center Japan is working to save hens from suffering in battery cages. Please support us. http://www.arcj.org/donate/
The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will begin on July 23, 2021, under the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Controlling the pandemic is a major issue in the Olympic Games. However, there is another important issue that has not received full attention, namely, animal welfare. Last month, Animal Rights Center Japan submitted a statement of request to the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) and the Cabinet Office. The statement insisted that standards for procuring livestock products for the Tokyo Olympics were insufficient and that battery-cage eggs, gestation-crate pork, and overcrowded chickens should not be provided in the Olympic Village. While the TOCOG and the Cabinet Office did respond…
The national grant programs that support the livestock industry of Japan range so widely, from the two possibly most known programs called “Strong Agriculture Grants” and “Livestock Cluster Business” to lesser known programs such as a compensation for farms when production costs exceed the selling price and a simple long-term and low interest-rate loan, that we can not list them all here. (See here for more detail.) With the novel coronavirus as well, various support for the livestock industry was established. Let’s take a look at the support system for the livestock industry during the COVID-19 crisis, as a reference for how much the country regards the livestock industry as…
No land animals are used as much as broiler chickens for meat. In Japan, 700 million chickens are raised per year. For this reason, improving situations for these animals would make a huge impact in terms of animal welfare. It is also important to take this issue seriously for our sustainable society since it is deeply connected to the issue of drug resistance. Many European companies signed up for the European Chicken Commitment. It was initiated by an animal welfare organization that set better standards for raising chickens. In the Commitment, various proposals are suggested to solve issues for chicken in light of animal welfare. Issue 1: TOO BIG. TOO…
We would like to introduce two stores that aim for 100% cage-free eggs. In Kyoto City, the confectionery store Ikeda makes dorayaki using cage-free eggs. They use eggs from Wabisuke, a reputable cage-free egg producer, and hope to achieve 100% cage-free status by 2030 if Wabisuke can keep up with the supply. ‘The price gap between cage and free-range eggs is gradually narrowing,’ says the store manager, and indeed it is. However, even if more confectioners start using cage-free eggs, the taste of Ikeda, with 20 years of craftsmanship, remains unparalleled. At events, Ikeda also sells plant-based dorayaki using beet sugar. Yokoi Farm in Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture, manufactures and…
Mothers Co., Ltd., based in Shiraoi Town, Hokkaido, owns its own layer farms, and is popular for the sale of sweets made from eggs produced there. The Animal Rights Center has been urging the company, known for its understanding of animal welfare, to shift to cage-free farming for several years. Now, after reevaluating the relationship between chickens and humans through the COVID-19 pandemic and the avian influenza crisis, Mothers has decided to convert all of its farms to cage-free. Originally, one of the three buildings was cage-free, but preparations are now underway to convert the remaining two to cage-free (aviary systems). Soon, approximately 40,000 egg-laying hens will be housed in…
Since it’s scheduled to be reviewed in 2025, there has been a series of discussions on the Animal Welfare and Management Act. Together with Japan Anti-Vivisection Association (JAVA) and PEACE(Put an End to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation), the Animal Rights Center Japan compiled requests to further update the law. As we demanded for the revision in 2019, situations for livestock animals have improved significantly, so we’re focusing on what is yet to be realized this time around. In addition, we request the law be properly followed since it has not been strictly enforced lately. Transition to Animal Welfare(福祉)Act from Animal Protection(愛護)Act 1.Clarify animal welfare by changing to “the purpose of…
Animal welfare progress by companies in Japan is far behind that of the rest of the world. This is apparent both in the Ethical Report Card of Companies that ARCJ participates in the rating of and in the ranking conducted by an evaluator for overseas investors. However, efforts for animal welfare are steadily progressing in Japan as well. Of course, what are driving this trend are the voices of consumers and citizens, and citizens’ groups like us who negotiate with companies with those voices on our back, and recently, consumer groups are participating in this movement as well. Let’s take a look at the situations of companies, though it is…
In March 2022, Japan’s largest egg producer Ise Foods, faced by financial difficulted, filed for corporate reorganization, drawing much attention since. Ise Foods keeps more birds in battery cages than any other companies in Japan, counting to as many as 13 million hens. While they have begun to introduce cage-free rearing methods in the United States, the pace has been extremely slow. Given that timing, they appear to have inevitably done so as some US states announced stringent regulations that would ban the trade of cage-reared eggs. There are many ways to describe Ise Foods; the largest egg company in Japan, a frontier of the low margin high turnover business…
Asahikawa Koen Guest House In response to an inquiry from Animal Rights Center Japan, Asahikawa Koen Guest House in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, responded that all the eggs they use are already cage free and that they would support the cage-free commitment. Asahikawa Koen Guest House is an accommodation facility that aims to be a place for local gatherings, with local production for local consumption as much as possible. Cage-free eggs are used for breakfast, and they apparently explain the goodness of cage-free rearing. The owner says, ”One of the reasons why cage-free eggs do not spread is that even if you know cage-free eggs as a word, you do…
Dogs and cats have been subjects of charges with animal cruelty, but other animals continue to be “non-prosecuted” as if they were in a lawless zone.We can say that the attitude of protecting only dogs and cats and not other animals reflect the low maturity of this country. Some may believe that better treatment of dogs and cats will improve situations for other animals, but this theory is unfounded and the gap has instead kept widening. However, the penalties of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals apply to all protected animals, whether they are kept in test facilities, under experiment, confined in livestock farms, or being killed at…
On 2021/6/3, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) issued the following report related to the bribery case of the former chair of Akita Foods. Regarding the release of “Report of the Verification Committee on Poultry and Egg Administration” and “Results of Additional Ethical Investigations” The media reported that the conclusion was “chicken egg bribery ‘no policy distortion’ “, but the report shows how much MAFF’s policy was distorted from the start. Questions were also asked by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee, all of which pointed out that the answers were ambiguous and the investigation was inadequate; nevertheless, it repeated that “the policy was not distorted”. Of course,…
When visiting cattle housed in Tohoku following the disaster we witnessed cows laying down in abandoned cattle houses. When water was offered they guzzled it down. One cow, who had been unable to stand up, passed away a few days later. The calves, only 3 to 4 months old, in the neighboring cattle house were all dead. The baby cows were also dead in crates except for one calf who managed to escape. They died alone. The heifers were mostly dead. We only saw two survivors and when we approached them, they licked our hair. They may still be alive since their death is unconfirmed. The contents of the video…
There was a sign like this at MaxValu supermarket: This probably makes many consumers feel like they should eat more chicken and eggs. However, when speaking of taking in protein efficiently, it would make more sense to compare the amount of protein per unit calorie, rather than “per 100g”. This is because while it doesn’t really matter how many grams of food we eat per day, how many calories we should take in per day is roughly determined. For example, how about per 200kcal. According to Japan food standard composition table 2015 (1) as referred to in the above sign, the composition (protein, fat, cholesterol) per 200kcal is: Per 200kcal…
In response to an inquiry from Animal Rights Center Japan, Restaurant The Applehouse in Morioka, Iwate, responded that all the eggs they use are already cage free and that they would support the cage-free declaration. The owner says, We do not slaughter the cage-free chickens, but take care of them until death. Usually they get killed in about 2 years, but my chickens live 5 or 6 years, so I think they are happy. Today’s livestock farming in Japan packs them tightly, so the animals are prone to illness; that’s why I think antibiotics and hormones must be used. I think it is better for animals to have less stress with…
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