On the World Day for Farmed Animals: Appeal the current situation of animals from Shibuya, Iwate, and Shiga

On October 2, 2022, World Day for Farmed Animals, we partnered with the Animal Rights Center Iwate and Shiga to carry out simultaneous actions in three locations across the country. During the day, we held animal rights workshops in Shibuya, Shiga and online, followed by a demonstration in Shibuya, Shiga and Iwate at the same time. Approximately 50 animal rights activists from across Japan attended the workshop. After the lecture, participants asked many questions and their enthusiasm for their activities came through clearly.We’ realized, once again, that a lot of activists are doing their best to protect animals through trial and error. At the demonstration in Shibuya, we, with around…

No more foie gras! Import of foie gras decreased by 44%

Compared to 2020, the import of foie gras dropped by 44% according to the 2021 statistics presented by the Ministry of Finance. When compared to 10 years ago, it has decreased by 94%.  This is likely because many consumers in Japan are feeling more and more disturbed by the inhumane process to produce foie gras, plus the issue of bird flu that emerges almost every year. Animal cruelty and diseases are two primary issues when it comes to farm animals, and thus, both companies and stakeholders should avoid the risks to consumers who are turned off by the cruel practice and the pandemics caused by farm animals. Plunging Demand Today,…

Environment Minister Koizumi for ethical diet, too, “avoids eating foie gras”

On November 17, 2020, at the House of Representatives Environment Committee, Representative Keinin Horikoshi explained the cruelty of foie gras and the heated discussions in France. The day has finally come when we can talk about the cruelty of foie gras in the Diet! This question leads to an appeal to prevent cruelty to livestock animals, but stated that the world is beginning to reject cruel procedures. Foie gras, which is said to be one of the world’s three major delicacies and is indispensable for Christmas in France, is now in an era where the majority of people are ok for it to be banned even in France. Last year,…

Farm Animals in Japan

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.…

Jonathan once again in cruel foie gras selling. Reach out opinions!

In the restaurant chain, Jonathan in the family restaurant chain began selling foie gras products again from September 6, 2018. Not only these menus are very cheap, they overlapped foie gras in two tiers. It is a menu with no ethics at all. Click to access 180906.pdf Japan imports foie gras from France, Spain, Canada and USA this year. They have not announced which country foie gras produced in which country they are using, but in any case they are cruel. Please send your opinion to remove it from the menu immediately not to treat foie gras. TEL 0120-125-807 (Reception time: 9 am – 6 pm) https://www2.skylark.co.jp/inquiry/form.php?contact_type=5 To the shareholders of Skylark…

Coop Shizenha Decided Not to Sell Foie Gras for Chirstmas This Year

We learned that Coop Shizenha decided not to sell foie gras for Chirstmas this year. We’d been requesting not to do so for a while. A person in charge at the Coop told us that there had not been many demands for foie gras anyways so they just let it go based on the opinions by the coop members this year. We did not get a promise by the Coop that they would do the same next year. However, the Coop has been a leading company that is aware of food issues. So we hope they will discontinue to sell foie gras. “Force feeding” in the process of making foie gras. Animals…

Skylark, please stop selling foie gras!

SKYLARK, the Japanese nationwide family restaurant chain, which includes Gusto and Jonathan, is continuing to sell foie gras. So far, it has bought over 30 tons of foie gras directly from producers ― that’s over fifty thousand birds. Foie gras is produced through gavage, the forced administration of food. Everyday, for two to three weeks, ducks and geese are force-fed between one- fourth and one-third of their body weight, by means of a long feeding tube that is forced down directly into their stomachs, so they can’t vomit. It is written that SKYLARK’s foie gras has IGP Certification. However IGP Certification is a production area certification – It tells us…

In front of the Skylark general meeting of stockholders. Action to end the sale of Foie Gras

Today we held a demonstration in front of the Skylark general stockholder’s meeting. During the general meeting, one of  the Skylark stockholders suggested that Skylark sell a replacement version of fois gras like faux gras instead. He told us that one of the director’s of Skylark had said that fois gras is popular with Japanese customers because it is  is unusual, but that he understood there were issues and problems related to the selling of fois gras. We need to undertake a more powerful campaign to convince Skylark to take fois gras off the menu.

Victory!Import of Foie gras reduced 20% in 2015.We saved 61,735 gooses!

Japanese government announced the trade statistics of 2015. The import of the foie gras in 2015 decreased 37,041 kg (20%) from 2014.It is one of the factors that Japan was not able to import foie gras by the bird flu in France from France in December. However, there is much import until November in Japan because Japanese use foie gras in whole year unlike foreign countries.It becomes the large decrease even if comparing the import until November. Recognition that foie gras is cruel spreads out among Japanese, and demand may decreases.37,041 kg of foie gras mean 61,735 duck and geese. *We save 61735 duck and goose by Animal Rights Center’s campaigns. Still 234,010 ducks…

The Survey on Japanese Attitude toward foie gras

The Survey on Attitude toward foie gras  – Changes in import volume of foie gras 63.3% of people who know the production method of foie gras show a feeling of refusal in eating foie gras. 【Title of survey】Survey on farm animals 【Responsible organization】Non-Profit Organization Animal Rights Center  *requested for survey to the private research company 【Period】2014/12/17~2014/12/19 【The number of valid responses】1,188 【Objective】In order to understand the consumer awareness and behavior concerning farm animals 【Survey design】Style: Internet survey 【Target area】all parts of Japan 【Target】men and women between 15 and 59 years of age * junior high school students or younger are excluded * No image used *ISO20252 *ratio of male to female:  male 50.8%, female 49.2% *Only one choice of the answers for each question 1. Please answer the questions after reading below sentence. Foie gras which is known as one of the three major delicacies of the world is made by force-feeding ducks and geese. For two to three weeks, two to three times a day, a worker grabs each bird, shoves a long, thick metal tube all the way down his throat, and an air pump shoots up to over amount of mush corn into his esophagus, and making thier livers 10 times bigger. This force-feeding is receiving a great deal of criticism and many countries prohibiting it. 1-1. Before reading above sentence, I knew how foie gras is produced. 1-2. I would like to eat foie gras after having known the fact of production methods. 1-3. I think companies and restaurants should stop serving foie gras which were made by force-feeding ducks and geese. 1-4. Foie gras should not be served at the celebrations such as wedding. 1-5. I feel sorry for the birds who will be foie gras. Among the people who did not know the production of foie gras method, 74.1% of people “do not want to eat foie gras” ,show a feeling of refusal for the foie gras. ※Among the people who replied “Not Applicable” for a question of 1-1, the person who replied “Not Applicable” question of 1-2 is 51.5%. the person who replied it when “Less Applicable” is 22.6%. In addition, as a result of this investigation, I understood that 59.6% of people showed a feeling of refusal to foie gras among “the people who ate meat every day”. ※In this investigation, we survey various investigations about farm animal’s and lifestyle. 2. I would like to know the production methods of farm animals (meat, eggs, and milk etc) when I choose to purchase. 69.4% of people are interested in the breeding environment of livestock products.However, it is provided practically by the consumers who do not know the breeding method of cruel foie gras. Changes in import volume of foie gras The import volume of foie gras has been decreasing since 2006 when ARC has started enlightening actives.