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 always been told that they cannot promise to go cage-free when the supply is only 1.48%.
In order to solve this issue, government subsidies for the initial investment costs are needed. In the past, it has been possible to cover the costs within livestock cluster projects, but when this subsidy is used, it is required to improve profitability and expand the scale of the project, making it difficult to use it for the development of animal welfare facilities, which would be a form of loosening the efficiency of factory animal agriculture.
The FY2025 supplemental budget brought an important change: the profitability and scale expansion requirements were removed.
Livestock cluster projects are now divided into two types: profitability-enhancing and sustainability-enhancing. In other words, the outcome should not be profit, but rather improvement of animal welfare.
Since animal welfare is clearly improved by keeping chickens out of cages and pigs out of stalls, this change has significantly lowered the bar for applying for assistance for cage-free and gestation stall-free.
Of course, this is still not enough; when Councilor Katsuhiko Yamada, who requested subsidies at the April Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Committee meeting for capital investment in cage-free, better-chicken, gestation-stall-free, and tied-farm-free facilities, was briefed by the MAFF on the improvements to these subsidies, he said, “Even if you want to work on it, it is important to have a support program for that at the field level. In order to proceed with the initiatives, it is important to have support programs that are properly and simply implemented,” he said, calling for continued subsidies in a form that would make it easier for the field to take action.
The Animal Rights Center has been asking the Japanese government for subsidies for cage-free and gestation stall-free eggs as a measure to create “demand to switch from cage to cage-free eggs” and to keep up with supply. The Environment Committee also expressed the need for subsidies for the purpose of animal welfare, with Councilor Yuko Kitano calling for support for farmers who are making efforts. The Animal Rights Center has also been involved in signature drives and dialogues, and it appears that the public opinion has finally begun to reach the government regarding animal welfare on farms, following the subsidies for animal welfare at poultry slaughterhouses.
We know that a number of cage-raised farmers are interested in trying cage-free rearing. There are also many pig farmers who have always wanted to switch to gestation stall free. We hope that their desire to care for their animals will be put into practice.
