Problems in Japan’s livestock policy brought to light in the House of Councillors Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries At the House of Councillors Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on May 12, 2026, MP Noriko Ishigaki, in light of…
Certified NPO Animal Rights Center has announced the winners of the “Animal Welfare Awards 2026”, which recognize initiatives that have had a major impact on improving the welfare of farmed animals in Japan.This year, the awards recognized signs of structural…
In Japanese slaughterhouses, there is still the problem of pigs and cattle waiting at moorings not being allowed to drink water. In an era when summer temperatures in Hokkaido can exceed 35 degrees Celsius day after day, it seems too…
We have been conducting a survey on the awareness of livestock animal husbandry since 2016, 10 years have passed. The awareness of the situation has previously been low even by international standards. According to a study of attitudes toward animal…
30% of surveyed companies have developed animal welfare policies The Animal Rights Center (ARC) has released its “FARMWISE Impact 2026” study of 107 food companies considered to have a high impact in the livestock sector in the Japanese market. The…
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…