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It was shocking to hear the response by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) to a question about animal welfare at the Tokyo Olympics asked by Councilor Katsuya Ogawa from Hokkaido at the House of Councilors Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Shocking response 1. Perhaps MAFF doesn’t know much about the group rearing of pigs? The OIE Pig Welfare Policy was established in May 2018, and it recommends that the sows be bred in groups, indicating that pregnancy stall breeding does not satisfy animal welfare (OIE Animal Welfare Code: Animal Welfare and Pig Production System. Article 7.13.1). In promoting group rearing, MAFF has expressed concerns as follows:…
Did you know that the majority of dairy farms in Japan tie the cows pretty much permanently with tethers or chains such that they can’t move sideways or back and forth? As many as 73% of dairy farms in Japan use such tie-stalls as the primary rearing method. Dairy cows in tie-stalls in Japan (ARCJ) They can’t even move away from floors covered in feces.（ARCJ) If you were forced to live on feces, tied down like this every day, how would you feel? Japan has no regulations regarding tethering of dairy cows, unlike in Europe. Regulations and Status in Europe In Denmark, 85% of cows used to be tethered in…
It may wind up having opposite effects? On March 13th 2019, Mr. Akihiro Hatsushika, a diet member from Tokyo asked questions about animal welfare with regards to the procurement of livestock for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to Minister Yoshitaka Sakurada, who is in charge of this issue, at the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In response to the general-policy speech given by the ministry that stated “In the Olympic village, we’ll use domestic ingredients in order to promote Japan …,” Mr. Hatsushika pointed out that many athletes already showed their concern about animal welfare issues in Japan, so it may indeed have opposite…
In February 2019, hog cholera crossed the border of Gifu prefecture and reached Aichi, Nagano, Shiga, and Osaka prefectures. There are many livestock producers in the area of Tahara-city of Aichi prefeture. Many pigs have been killed since cholera was first observed in Gifu prefecture in 2018. The number of pigs killed has risen to 40,000 in total as of February 2019. It is horrifying to imagine there will be more pigs killed considering the concentration of such business in Tahara city in Aichi. The reports by media and comments by concerned parties only focus on economical damage. However, the biggest loss and victims are indeed pigs. It is not…
“I must say that animal welfare is not pursued at slaughterhouses” It was Mr. Keiji Horikoshi, a monk, and a member of the House of Representatives, who raised the issue of animal welfare in slaughterhouses, which had not been included in the original discussions of this group. The Environmental Committee had been long held off during the extraordinary diet session. On Dec 5th 2017, the committee finally took place where Mr. Horikoshi from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan chose animal welfare issues as his first question. “… especially, there is a belief where Buddha exists in every single thing, including mountains, grass, trees, and rivers in relation to importance of lives, which is called “Sansensoumokushikkaijoubutsu.” This…
Mother Sows in Captivity:sow stall in Japan A rearing method which has been illegalized in many countries is still used at more than 88% of pig farms in Japan. These are photos taken between 2015 and 2017 at Japanese hog raising farms. Sows are shut in a small cage called a sow stall (gestation create). Sows spend almost all of their entire life in a cage in which they cannot walk or turn. Sows engage in abnormal behaviors such as biting their cages, continuously doing chewing motions without food in their mouths, and drinking water without stopping. The EU banned sow stalls in 2013, and ten states in America have banned them.…
We are submitting these petitions to companies that use animal-derived ingredients. “Please Do Not Lock Down Laying Hens in Japan” “Petition against Sow Stall” We are also explaining the comapanies about animal welfare, and also giving them suggestions of what they can do to improve animal welfare as a company. Companies to which we submitted petitions Ryohin Keikaku Co.,Ltd. They started working on animal issues comparatively early than other companies in Japan. They stopped using fur and wool which was produced with mulesing. They also run cafes and they are trying to use cage-free eggs as much as they can. We asked them for further comittment for animal welfare. NISSIN…
At the athletes village we are asking for the 100% sourcing of eggs from non-cage facilities (cage-free / free-range) and for the 100% sourcing of pork from gestation crate-free facilities (no gestation crates.) We ask the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games to make the best effort to meet this goal and inform the public about their progress.
The revision of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals will take place soon. We, the Animal Rights Center, JAVA, and PEACE, have been working together to make suggestions to improve the enforcement of the act for all animals. What does it mean when we say “all” animals. It includes animals to exhibit, animals to breed pets, animals that are kept as pets, animals used for experiments, animals that are considered to be dangerous, and animals for livestock, which tend to be overlooked and rarely discussed. We have been demanding the improvement of law enforcement for livestock animals that are, legally speaking, industry animals. They suffer the most, and…
The Animal Rights Center’s goal is to improve animal welfare. We’re starting to see some companies and producers who are implementing good practice in Japan. However, animal abuse is so common as though it cancels out all these good deeds. This is a challenge in Japan. It exemplifies a bad custom described in a Japanese proverb “to cover up things that smell bad (sweep trouble under the rug).” The below shows cases of animal abuse that are even beyond animal welfare in Japan. The horrifying fact is that these are not what only bad companies practice, but rather they are common practice, and the legislation also is sometimes aware of…
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…
10 Olympians started the campaign to demand animal welfare at 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They said “If you do not update the policies and food quality acceptable in our city’s Olympic Games, your city could be viewed as behind the global trend toward improved welfare standards for animals in factory farms. This is extremely problematic.”
We launched a petition called “Stop Confining Hens which Produce Eggs for us in Cruel Cages.” On 2018 June 18, it already has gathered more than 16,350 signatures. This petition was launched to ask companies and government to shift from cage eggs which confines hens in tine cages to free range or barn eggs. We asked companies to meet us to discuss cage-free policy and to accept the petition and documents writing about information related to cage-free movement. (We did the same thing also in 2017. You can find the results from here in Japanese.) As we gather more and more signatures, it will be more difficult for companies to ignore cage-free…
We’ve been campaigning to change animal welfare for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics that is currently under threat. Mr. Katsuya Ogawa of the House of Councilors and the Animal Rights Center submitted 11,132 petitions from 36 domestic and international groups regarding the animal welfare for livestock animals to the Headquarters for the Promotion of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. They stated that the events’ procurement code is actually owned by the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games so the headquarters is not involved. It was also pointed out there is a limitation for cost that is allocated for food, so the committee may not be able…
It’s been pointed out by several reports that the animal welfare standards of livestock for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Games have been lowered. Some of them even clearly stated it’s highly problematic or the standards are not good enough. It doesn’t appear that our legislation and the Olympic Committee have responded to such voices so far. Can we really let this issue slide? As Prof. Hosokawa points out in Toyo Keizai Online, we’re missing an opportunity to improve Japan’s agriculture that has been left behind by the world. Sooner or later the world as well as wise consumers will realize that the “animal welfare” claimed by the Japanese…
In the Miyagi prefectural assembly held on September 12th 2017, Mr. Tsuneharu Sakai from Miyagi Kenmin no Koe, a member of the assembly, raised 3 general questions about animal welfare. Mr. Sakai has also asked to the governor before about developing a system to find families for dogs and cats to adopt. This time, he asked about transitioning the current systems that use battery cages for egg-laying hens and gestation crates for pigs to systems that take animal welfare into account more. He also requested the prefecture tackle on animal welfare issues more, especially in terms of the current situation for the drinking facility in slaughterhouses and more humane transportation systems…
There is rare in Japan(maybe in the world), a no-kill and free-range egg farm. They are sweeping through the green grass on a spacious site, digging the soil, taking a dust bath and chickens are busy days.Sometimes a group headed by a male go a walk to the next house with their own will.Here you can see the real chicken’s social life. The owner Kawahara said Chicken is a small creature of the body. Summer is a difficult season for chickens with an average body temperature around 42 ° C, which must be lifted and overcome. And from the beginning of autumn, until May of the following year, the tension…
A belief in safety of windowless poultry houses is widely accepted in Japan. However, it’s only a myth that bird flu can be prevented if contact with wild birds is prevented. It is true that some wild birds, out of dozens, who died in Japan carried bird flu, but bird flu of broiler chickens has not been prevented by cutting contact from wild birds through windowless poultry houses. See types of poultry houses in which bird flu was discovered here.(JP) And yet, the number of windowless poultry houses has been increasing because of this false belief. Poultry houses Open Semi-windowless Windowless total 2007 Number of poultry house 6,991…
On June 14th in 2017, Katsuya Ogawa, the first Animal Welfare Study Group was held, which was called by a member of the House of Councilors and Takashi Shinohara, a member of the House of Representatives. In the beginning, Mr. Ogawa pointed out that he had raised the issue of how behind Japan was in terms of animal welfare in the diet, how the discussion with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan had not progressed, and he felt a sense of crisis that we must do something now to move forward to meet standards similar to foreign countries’, towards the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics held in 2020.…
On April 1st, the standard of JGAP (Certificate of agriculture), which was included in the standards of procurement for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, was announced after solicitation of public comments. Some items became mandatory, which had not been in the initial proposal. An animal welfare issue for transportation was also added to the standard. However, the overall standard is really loose in terms of animal welfare, just as we were concerned with. Points for Management in light of Animal Welfare Must set a person who is responsible for care and management Must document policy and objectives including animal welfare issues Must improve [animal welfare] by conducting self-check at least…
The multi-partisan parliamentary group aiming for zero killing of dogs and cats has established a project team for amending the Animal Welfare Act. Since its launch on August 25, 2023, the PT has held 21 meetings to hear from stakeholders and deliberate on the direction of amendments. Out of these 21 sessions, however, only one touched on livestock animals, and just one on laboratory animals. Despite 1 billion livestock animals being killed annually, the issue remains far from the priorities of lawmakers. In the sole PT meeting addressing livestock, the discussions showed promise, but it is unlikely to expect significant amendments by 2025 at this rate. 17th PT: Hearings on…
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