In the eyes of many people, Japan is a land of meticulous farmers who take care of every grain of rice like a precious gem. The rice terraces are delicate and lovely, as if they were a postcard. Japanese agriculture has always had a reputation for quality and craftsmanship, and their small-scale, labor-intensive agricultural production methods have produced top-notch agricultural products.
Behind these beautiful accounts, however, we often overlook the scandals that have plagued Japan's agricultural sector in the past.
Historically, Japanese agriculture has experienced a number of shocking scandals, which are no less trivial than China's agricultural problems in the past.
What ulterior motives do some media have for touting and deifying Japanese agriculture for no reason?
Endless Japanese agricultural scandals
Although time can dilute many memories, the scandals that once disgraced Japanese agriculture, such as tainted milk powder, gutter oil, poisoned rice, tampering with the expiration date, and falsifying ingredients, did indeed happen. Today, let's take a look back at these gloomy histories.
The Morinaga Poisoned Milk Powder Incident in 1955:
The poisoned milk powder incident of Japan's Morinaga Company shocked the world. During the processing of milk powder, Morinaga was exposed to the addition of toxic arsenic, which caused more than 12,000 children to develop symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, liver enlargement and darkening of the skin.
In the end, 130 children lost their lives. This incident has had a profound impact on Japan's agricultural and sideline products and food safety supervision, and has promoted the reform and improvement of Japan's food safety laws, regulations and management system.
The Morinaga poisoned milk powder scandal is also one of the largest food safety scandals in Japanese history, and it has had a profound impact on Japanese society. In the 60s of the 20th century, the gutter oil crisis broke out again in Japan. At that time, Japan had already begun to increase restrictions and penalties for waste oil, which could not be sold domestically and could only be resold to Taiwan.
Hokkaido tampering with fruit expiration dates in 2007:
The scandal of Shiroibito Fruit Co., Ltd., a producer of Shiroibito in Hokkaido, Japan, tampering with the product's expiration date was exposed, resulting in the product being completely removed from the shelves.
The 2008 "Poisoned Rice" Incident in Japan:
Mikasa Foods Co., Ltd., an Osaka-based rice noodle processor, sells harmful rice used in the manufacture of industrial glue as edible rice. These industrial rice contain harmful substances such as aflatoxins, highly carcinogenic pesticides, and methamidophos, an insecticide. Thousands of tons of "poisoned rice" flowed to the market, and the problematic rice flowed into 24 prefectures in Japan, affecting the whole of Japan.
2015 Japanese Akita fertilizer manufacturer ingredient fraud:
The National Agricultural Cooperative (JA Zen-noh) has announced that the fertilizer manufacturer Taihei & Cutter in Akita City has found counterfeit ingredients in fertilizers. Although it is harmless to health, the fertilizer composition is insufficient, and the proportion of organic raw materials is small.
According to Quan Nuo, among the 783 fertilizer brands produced by the Taihei Bussan Factory in four prefectures including Akita, the fertilizer ingredients of 726 brands randomly inspected did not match the ingredients recorded on the fertilizer bags.
Japanese agriculture is not as flawless as we think. Past food safety issues have dealt a heavy blow to Japan's agriculture and food industry, tarnishing their reputation and having a far-reaching negative impact.
At the same time, Japan's agriculture industry is also facing many problems that need to be solved urgently. Japan is notoriously inefficient in agriculture, with an aging farmer population, and some problems related to land use and agricultural sustainability.
Japan's agriculture industry is also facing many problems that need to be solved urgently
Due to the small scale and lack of economies of scale in most family-run agriculture in Japan, more than 70% of landowners are over the age of 60, and nearly 10% of agricultural land is abandoned.
The majority of farmers in Japan are aging, and fewer and fewer young people are entering the industry. This demographic shift has raised concerns about whether agricultural practices are sustainable in the long term. Employment in agriculture has fallen to a quarter of previous levels.
The presence of a large number of small-scale part-time farmers in Japan has hindered the growth of agricultural productivity. Although these farmers account for an important proportion of Japan's agriculture, they often do not pay enough attention to agricultural management, and lack the determination and action to expand the scale of farmland management and improve agricultural management conditions.
This has led to low agricultural productivity, high costs, and a lack of competitiveness in the international market.
The Japanese government's over-protection of agriculture has created a path of dependence for Japanese agriculture. This path has hindered the proper solution of the problem of agricultural modernization, and the space for sustainable development of agriculture in Japan has been greatly limited.
Due to various economic and cultural factors in Japanese society, Japan's structural agricultural policy has failed to achieve the desired results, and on the contrary, Japanese agriculture has fallen into obvious development difficulties.
Despite Japan's rich agricultural tradition, it still relies on imports for certain food items, especially staples such as wheat and soybeans. This dependence on imports has raised questions about food security and the ability of Japanese agriculture to meet national needs in the face of external disruptions. While agriculture, forestry, and fishing, together with mining, make up the main sectors of the Japanese economy, they together account for only 1.3% of GDP. Only 20% of Japan's land is suitable for farming, and the agricultural economy is highly subsidized.
Be wary of the media's over-hype of Japanese agriculture
There may be complex factors and motivations behind China's over-touting of Japan.
As an important channel for information dissemination, the media may sometimes exaggerate certain phenomena and lead to a biased public perception of certain issues. For example, the media often reports on the merits of Japanese agriculture but avoids talking about the problems. As a result, the public is likely to develop an excessive favorable opinion of Japanese agriculture.
Economic interests are also factors that cannot be ignored. Some interest groups may manipulate public opinion to create a positive image of Japan in order to promote cooperation between the two sides or promote smooth sales of products.
What is even more alarming is that some domestic and foreign forces may try to influence the values and cultural identity of the Chinese people by creating a positive image of Japan, which in turn will have a negative impact on the direction of the country's development or cohesion.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has invited a group of Chinese Internet influencers to Japan as visiting scholars. After the visit, these invitees gave a full range of publicity and praise to Japan. This phenomenon has attracted people's attention and reflection, because it is not simply "bought with money" can be explained.
It has been reported that Japanese companies also have a unique way of "buying hearts and minds". They engage and influence perceptions by shaping and disseminating their corporate culture and values.
Looking back at the scandal faced by Japanese agriculture and how to improve its predicament, China can also gain some inspiration and reference.
The Japanese agricultural scandal has aroused great concern and discussion about food safety in Japan, thus promoting the reform and improvement of Japan's food safety laws, regulations and management systems, and improving food safety standards.
Japan, which emerged from the food scandal, has established a very strict food safety management system. Japan has strict regulations and supervision in food safety management, especially in food labeling, traceability system, fertilizer and pesticide use, etc., which ranks among the top in the world.
In the face of aging and land shortage, Japanese farmers have adopted a small-scale and intelligent approach. Although the scale of farms in Japan is small, both in terms of actual area and annual sales, they are expanding year by year.
With the development of science and technology, the application of cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in Japanese agriculture is becoming more and more obvious. With satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, even smallholder farmers in Japan can adapt to data-driven agriculture at an affordable cost.
In addition, Japan is successful in agricultural branding and marketing. Japanese agricultural products are adept at marketing through complex packaging, branding, and storytelling to appeal to consumers' emotions and desires. This marketing strategy not only improves the perceived value of Japanese agricultural products, but also fosters a positive perception of Japanese agriculture as a whole.
In many ways, China's agriculture has surpassed Japan's
Japan, known for its quality and craftsmanship, has produced top-notch agricultural products in its small-scale, labor-intensive agricultural production methods, but it is difficult to lead the way in the efficiency and scalability of modern agriculture. Over time, China is also expected to learn some of Japan's agricultural strengths. However, China has a unique advantage in agriculture that Japan has not been able to achieve for a long time.
China is rich in land and resources, not only has a vast territory, but also has a variety of geographical environments and climatic conditions. From the black soils of the Northeast to the rainforests of the South, from the arid grasslands of the Northwest to the moist water towns of the East, a variety of crops and animals thrive on this land.
This opens up endless possibilities for China's agricultural production. Compared with Japan, China's agricultural advantages lie not only in its huge size and quantity, but also in the richness and diversity of crops.
China has many unique and high-quality crop varieties, from cereals in the north to tropical fruits in the south, from endemic crops on the plateau to fishery resources along the coast, all of which show the diverse charm of China's agriculture. The abundance of this crop variety not only provides a broad space for China's agricultural development, but also makes China unique and advantageous on the global agricultural stage.
China's grain self-sufficiency rate has always been maintained at a relatively high level, while Japan's grain self-sufficiency rate is low due to its large population, narrow land, poor agricultural resource endowment, and insufficient arable land, and its dependence on imported grain is relatively high. On the road to agricultural modernization, China is also facing problems such as an aging population, labor loss, and non-agricultural farmland. However, by drawing on and analyzing the practical experience of Japan's agricultural structural changes, China's agricultural transformation and upgrading has achieved results that surpass Japan's.
In terms of agricultural restructuring, China has mobilized a variety of methods. For example, farmers are encouraged to produce independently according to market demand, implement price subsidies for agricultural products, provide subsidies of up to 50 percent for the purchase of agricultural machinery, and adjust tariffs to maintain the stability of agricultural product prices.
China is the world's largest agricultural country, with the world's highest agricultural output value and agricultural exports. We have every reason to believe that China's agriculture will continue to maintain its unique advantages in the future.
Chinese generally have mixed feelings about Japan, and here is a classic line from the movie "The Godfather": "Let friends underestimate your abilities, let opponents overestimate your weaknesses." ”
This principle is also appropriate for dealing with neighboring Japan, but in complex international relations, it can also be understood as a kind of strategic wisdom to strive for a more favorable environment for oneself in its interactions with rival Japan.
Resources:
Japanese Agriculture (Contemporary World Agriculture Series) 2021 China Agriculture Press
Research on Modern Agricultural Policies in Japan, 2019, Jiangsu People's Publishing House