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MIHOPAN, a sincere bakery in Higashi-Osaka City that has consistently provided bread made with carefully selected ingredients, has recently pledged to only use cage-free eggs moving forward, showing their support for the cage-free movement. The owner, Miho, became increasingly aware of the poor treatment of animals in Japan, especially those used for ingredients in her bread, such as domestic butter, eggs, and meat. As she delved deeper into the issue, she realized she could no longer continue using these products under the same conditions. Since then, she has been committed to selecting ingredients that consider animal welfare. MIHOPAN has already transitioned to using only cage-free eggs. Additionally, the menu items…
The Animal Welfare Award, presented annually to companies that have made effective contributions to domestic animal welfare, has selected the winners for the poultry and fish categories. The Animal Welfare Award is organized by the certified NPO Animal Rights Center, which aims to improve the welfare of farmed and aquatic animals. This award recognizes companies that have had the most significant impact on animal welfare during the previous year (April 2023 to March 2024) Chicken Award：Laying Hen Ajinomoto Co., Inc. Since identifying animal welfare issues for farmed animals through the company’s ethical report card in 2016, Ajinomoto has taken significant steps to address these concerns. They held a roundtable with…
On December 11, 2023, lawmaker Seiichi Kushida asked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about animal welfare at a plenary session of the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of Japan’s parlimament. Mr. Kushida explained how animal welfare efforts will impact investment and the country’s economy. “In the policy speech of the agriculture minister, there was absolutely no mentioning of animal welfare. Is it that animals don’t matter as long as people are happy? Animals are not objects. What is your perception of Japan being rated as the world’s coldest country to animals?,” he confronted the prime minister. In response to this question, Prime Minister Kishida emphasized the need to promote animal…
There is no official data on the percentage of chickens raised cage free in Japan. This means that, while the overall number of the chickens kept is known, the government does not have accurate information on the raising methods used. In contrast, many European countries, the United States, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand keep such statistics. Just this past week, on October 11, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released data showing that as of June 2023, 38% of chickens in the country were not confined to cages. So what about Japan? The government uses the statistics released by the International Egg Commission that are based on the…
Takashimaya Farm is a natural food store operated by the well-trusted, long-established department store ‘Takashimaya’, incorporating advanced agricultural and food practices. Recently, buyers from Takashimaya Farm and the Animal Rights Center Japan had an opportunity for dialogue and confirmed that all the shell eggs sold are from cage-free sources. Having cage-free products among the items selected by the discerning buyers of a traditional department store represents a significant and valuable initiative for animal welfare. It truly is a fusion of tradition and cutting-edge practices. What is Cage-Free? 99% of Japan’s egg-laying chickens are kept in cages, which are cramped and unhealthy enclosures. These farming practices are globally shifting towards cage-free…
A response has been received from the town of Kujukuri regarding the 3,000 sardines being kept in overcrowded conditions at the entrance to the Sea Station Kujukuri Sardine Museum operated by the town of Kujukuri, Chiba Prefecture. As for the request to discontinue the sardine exhibit, the response is as follows: “The sardine tank was installed as one of the purposes of attracting visitors to our facility, and we think it is well received.In addition, as of April 1, 2023, with the approval of the Town Council, we have already contracted with a private company to maintain the water tank for one year until March 31, 2024, and we believe…
ARC HQ (Tokyo) LUSH Shinjuku x Animal Rights Center JapanFor three days from April 1st to 3rd, we rented a charity space at the LUSH Shinjuku store to hold a charity event “Why is this hen so worn out?” – problem of chicken eggs in Japan -“. At the event, outreach activities were carried out, such as showing videos and slides of the actual cage rearing of egg-laying hens, and distributing flyers to eliminate factory farming of livestocks. LUSH has had a policy against animal testing since its inception, and in 2019 removed cage-free eggs from all of its products, making the choice to further reduce the suffering of animals.…
Say NO to Practice of Starving Animal to Death in Industry A broiler chicken company in Wakayama prefecture reportedly starved 140,000 chickens to death in 2020. The company belonged to the Arita Poultry Agricultural Cooperative. According to Wakayama prefecture, a chicken slaughterhouse owned by the same owner of this broiler chicken company went bankrupt first, which resulted in the inability to relocate the chickens , then starvation. They claimed they could not afford putting these chickens down, either. The prefecture didn’t step in to help euthanize the birds, either. And yet, the prefecture promptly executed an aid to clean up the corpses that cost approximately 100 million JPY, and handed…
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.…
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…
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.…
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