Japan

GMO-free news from Japan

This links to a page with the GENET-news from Japan that are relevant for the development for GMO-free zones.

Updates + Overviews

: GMO-Free Zones in Japan in 2012, 2009 and 2008

GMO Free Zone Registration Status Report (2012)

The NO! GMO Campaign held its seventh annual nationwide GMO Free Zone conference in Yamaguchi Prefecture on March 3, 2012. About 450 farmers and consumers gathered from all over Japan. The trend in Japan is that the total area of GMO Free Zones is expanding. The total registered area now stands at 78366.81 hectares as of February 17, 2012. This is an increase by 9694.16 hectares compared to the previous year (February 10, 2011). Over the past year, new GMO Free Zones have been registered in 23 prefectures out of Japan’s 43 prefectures, as well as in administrative areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Hokkaido. Only two prefectures in the entire country do not have any GMO Free Zones. In total, the combined area is about 1.7% of the cultivated farmland in Japan.

(NO! GMO Campaign, 6 Aug 2012)

Protect biodiversity from living modified organisms at MOP5 in Nagoya!
A network of japanese organisations was created in order to act on the United Nations’ major meeting to be held in Nagoya, October 2010, for the Protocol on Biosafety (also called Cartagena Protocol) which regulates the international trade of organisms modified by modern biotechnology (living modified organisms). They want the meeting in Nagoya to define rules to protect consumers and the environment. The rules will be a crucial element of the global regulations regarding the integrity and continued sustainable use of living organisms under threat from certain risky applications of modern biotechnology.

The NO! GMO Campaign campaigned to halt Monsanto’s GM rice development, which the company intended to use to promote its GM rice into the Asian market. (in 2001, after a petition signed by over 580,000 citizens)
About 50,050 ha in total (over 1% of the whole farmland) are declared GMO-free in Japan
GM Rapeseed from Canada is growing Wild without control. In March 2004, the NO! GMO Campaign visited Canada and the U.S. to deliver a petition signed by 440 groups representing over 1,300,000 Japanese individuals.
155 organizations representing over 2.9 individuals signed on the petition to ask Australian state governments to extend their GM ban.

How to declare GMO-free zone in Japan? (Japanese)

Organisations and institutions active on GMO

NO! GMO Campaign
We, NO! GMO Campaign was established in 1996 by citizens of Japan in order to stop genetically modified foods (GMOs). The purpose and goals of No! GMO Campaign are: 1. We won't buy, won't eat, won't sell and won't farm GMO. 2. We demand proper labelling of GMO. 3. We work for increased food self sufficiency (food security) and we support local farming. 4. We encourage Japanese farmers to save the seeds, in order to keep Japan's biodiversity and to develop agro-genetic resources. No! GMO Campaign organises seminars and conferences, and publishes information materials. No! GMO Campaign prints and distributes a monthly newsletter for members. No! GMO Campaign has been active in the boycott of products manufactured by pro-GMO companies. We have tested and analyzed a hundred of foods in Japan. No! GMO Campaign has collected 2 million signatures against GMOs in Japan.
World Foodless Day in Tokyo
Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) opposite pictures show the Planet Diversity Parade organised by the CUJ on the occasion of the United Nations MOP5-COP10 conference in Nagoya. The activists demanded GMO-free zones, no patents on life and protection of biodiversity. View videos here.
Menno Village Naganuma/ Mennonite Mission Network (Japanese)
A Seed Japan (Japanese)

Presentations

	GM-Free Campaign in Japan, by Hiroko Akahori, Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative and Hiromi Kawahara, Green Coop Consumers Co-operative, "Food and Democracy", April 2009, Lucern.
	Genetic Modified Oilseed rape in Japan, by Ryoko Shimizu, Planet Diversity, May 2008, Bonn. Read the speech of Ryoko Shimitzu
	Japan: How Hokkaido protects its farmers from GMOs, by Shinji Asada, former vice-governor of Hokkaido, Planet Diversity, May 2008, Bonn. Listen to the speech of Shinji Asada read by Raymond Epp