Imports of fur-lined clothing had been on a steady decline for the past six years, but in 2025 they began to increase at a slackening rate. With the increase in consumer awareness in Japan, the volume of animal furs handled…
Trade statistics for 2025 are now available. Let’s take a frightening look at the volume of foie gras imports. 1765 kg This is well below the 9,831 kilos in 2024; in 2025, the number of birds was 2,942 in terms…
The Animal Rights Center has launched a campaign “Inside the Cage｜Where the Eggs are Born” to unobtrusively document and disclose the reality of cage keeping of egg-laying hens. Based on video footage and observations recorded inside a single poultry farm,…
Slaughter without stun treatment, only in Japan, is here to stay. Chickens have been suffering for more than 50 years without a voice, and on December 18, 2025, at the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Representative…
A cage-free rate of 1.48% is not very high enough for Japan to make the transition to cage-free as well. This is one of the reasons why Japanese companies are not making cage-free commitments like their foreign counterparts. They have…
The FY2025 supplemental budget was approved by the Budget Committee. Included in this budget was an important one for animal welfare. Loss of consciousness due to gas during chicken slaughter A new quota has been established to subsidize “animal welfare…
We don’t want animal sacrifices! We look forward to your cooperation! The three organizations, the Japan Association for the Abolition of Animal Testing (JAVA), the Animal Rights Center (ARC), and PEACE, have established the Campaign for No Sacrifice for Beauty,…
On September 19, 2025, Councilor Toshiyuki Ogawa (Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Chiba Prefectural Assembly Members’ Association) asked a general question about animal welfare at the regular assembly of Chiba Prefecture. Councilor Ogawa explained that legislation on animal welfare is…
The number of blood release failures, which can be considered the percentage of slaughter failures, has been released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Meat Reduction Survey. What happened to the numbers in 2023 and 2024, when the…
Domestic cage-free chicken numbers increase but still lowest in the world at 1.48% Faster shift to animal welfare livestock production needed Cage-free egg rearing, which emphasizes animal welfare, is spreading rapidly around the world, and many food companies and retail…
A new stage following the abolition of pregnancy stalls Starzen has long announced a policy of phasing out the use of “gestation stalls,” in which sows are confined to metal stalls during gestation where they cannot move, and is one…
The summers of 2024 and 2025 were and are predicted to be unusually hot. Imagine. If you are deprived of water for more than 12 hours in such a situation…. You can see that it would be very harsh and…
In August 2025, BAP certification, an international certification for aquaculture, officially announced that by December 31, 2030, all BAP-certified shrimp production facilities will fully end the practice of eyestalk ablation and external procurement of the relevant PL (seed) with support…
A new format question on the subject of animal welfare is now available in the “2026 Practice Test for the Common University Entrance Test: Japanese,” a practice test for the Common University Entrance Test prep school. Advisor- (Professor Emeritus, Japan…
As usual, the risk of Japanese chicken remains high. According to a study by Professor Takamasa Sasaki of Obihiro University published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Science in 2025, salmonella was detected in 86.4% of vacuum-packed chicken meat in…
The Animal Rights Center sent a protest to TBS Hiruobi on August 17, 2025, because of a scene in which animals were disrespected. During the program, one retail store owner explained that pigs have gotten used to the heat and…
The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook (Outlook) 2025-2034 has been released. Unfortunately, over the next decade, meat consumption was projected to increase by 47.9 million tons and production by 13%. Particularly increasing will be poultry, with consumption projected to increase by about…
On June 9, 2025, at the House of Councillors Accounts Committee, Japan Restoration Association member Seiichi Kushida pressed Prime Minister Ishiba and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Koizumi to address animal welfare. Since the WAP evaluation gave Japan’s livestock…
On June 3, 2025, at a Lower House Environment Committee meeting, Representative Kenko Matsuki of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan pointed out that the prior loss of consciousness at poultry slaughterhouses is highly problematic because more than 70% of…
This is a report on the February 2024 charges filed against eight employees of the Ibaraki Prefectural Livestock Breeding Center and their employer, Ibaraki Prefecture, for assaulting and improperly raising cattle in violation of the Animal Protection Law. In response…