• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • TP について/About
  • Topics/トピクス
    • Gender/ジェンダー
    • Globalisation/グローバリゼーション
    • Japan and Asia/日本とアジア
    • Japanese/日本語
    • Media/メディア
    • News/ニュース
    • Social Justice/社会正義
    • War and Empire/戦争&支配権力
    • Environment/環境
    • Other Stories/他の記事
  • Links/リンク
  • Contact

TokyoProgressive

Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

東西のプログレッシブをつなぐ − 1997年設立  |  Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

-Citizens succeed in stopping Iwate prefecture’s GM rice!”

December 4, 2003 by tokyoprogressive Leave a Comment

Press Information – NO! GMO Campaign Japan
December 1, 2003

Declaration of Victory

“Citizens succeed in stopping Iwate prefecture’s GM rice!”

On November 28, more than 450 people from all over Japan gathered in Morioka
city, Iwate, to participate in a gathering “No to GMO National Assembly in
Iwate”.

At the Assembly more than 407,000 signatures were collated of people from
all over Japan who had expressed support for a petition demanding a stop to
the GM rice(*) research taking place in Iwate.

All the participants then set off down the street in the cold to take the
petition to the Iwate prefectural government. It was taken into the
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department.

After receiving the 407,212 signatures from 20 representatives from the
Assembly, Mr. Masakatsu Sasaki, the Director of the Agriculture Department,
publicly stated that Iwate has decided to abandon its GM rice research.
Iwate conducted an outdoor GM rice experiment this year, which had been due
to continue for a further year.

The Director also stated that Iwate will not conduct any further outdoor
experiments involving GM rice or any other GM crops.

This is yet another victory for the citizens of Japan and follows on from
last year’s success in halting Monsanto’s GM rice in Aichi prefecture.

As a result of that successful citizens’ campaign to stop the Monsanto-Aichi
GM rice, Japanese private sector corporations completely abandoned GM rice
R&D. However the research facility of the former Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) – now an independent administrative
corporation – together with the Iwate Biotechnology Research Centre,
maintained their strong commitment to develop GM rice. Despite which, people
power has now succeeded in halting this GM rice research programme in Iwate.

MAFF is currently discussing how to tighten the regulation of outdoor
experimental releases of GM crops at research centres, in order to accord
with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which will enter into force in
Japan from 19 February 2004. Iwate’s decision is bound to have a strong
influence on MAFF’s review.

It is now no longer at all easy to work on GM rice R&D in Japan. The same
applies to other GM foods as well.

“We do not want GM food! We do not eat GM food! We will not let GM food be
produced!”. These are the words that are being repeated again and again by
the Citizens of Japan and their efforts look set to bring some big results
very soon.

In terms of a global perspective on GM farming, the US company Monsanto’s
attempt to rest control over global food production has not diminished, and
the GM farming area is enlarging. In addition, commercialisation for GM
wheat is being sought in the US and Canada.

NO! GMO Campaign’s next step is to increase its cooperation with other
citizens from all over the world in order to bring a halt to GM food.

NO! GMO Campaign
Keisuke Amagasa

For more information please contact:
Keisuke Amagasa (Mr)
Masako Koga (Ms)
no-gmo@jca.apc.org
NO! GMO Campaign
75-2F, Wasedamachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0042 Japan
TEL: +81-3-5155-4756 FAX: +81-3-5155-4767

(*) The Iwate Biotechnology Research Center was established in April 1992
with 100% funding from Iwate Prefecture. On 3 April 2003, the MAFF approved
outdoor trials for a low-temperature resistant rice variety “Sub29”
developed by the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center. This GM rice variety
(Sasanishiki) contains the glutathione-S-transferase gene, which imparts
multiple functions such as herbicide resistance and cold resistance. The
problem with this rice variety is that it produces enzymes with multiple
functions, and thus contains many uncertain factors. Simply anything could
happen, and it is possible that previously unknown problems will arise with
this variety in the future. (Source: Citizens’ Biotechnology Information
Center -CBIC)

Further reading:
NO! GMO Campaign: http://www.no-gmo.org/
Citizens’ Biotechnology Information Center:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~cbic/english/index.html
GM Rice Watch Center Japan:
http://www.gmrwatch.org/e/index.html
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Japan acceded on 21 November 2003)
http://www.biodiv.org/biosafety/signinglist.aspx?sts=rtf&ord=dt

Filed Under: Japan News

Join the Discussion

Comment on this article or respond to others' comments.

You can post below or send to the mailing list at discuss@list.tokyoprogressive.org.

a) Please sign you name at the bottom of your comment, so that we know who wrote it.

b) To prevent spam, comments need to be manually approved.

c) Comments which are insulting, racist, homophobic or submitted in bad faith will not be published.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

Archives

Main Categories (old and most recent)

Alternative News Contributors/投稿者 creative Democracy Now Environment/環境 Featured Gender/ジェンダー Globalisation/グローバリゼーション Jacobin Japan/日本 Japan and Asia/日本とアジア Japanese/日本語 Japan Focus Japan News Korea/韓国 latest latest-j links Media/メディア Mp3 National Security Archive neoliberalism new News/ニュース Other Stories/他の記事 Social Justice/社会正義 Topics Uncategorized Video War and Empire/戦争&支配権力

Search deeper

Abe activities, protests, films, events Afghanistan alternative news Bush class issues and homelessness Environmental research fukushima gaza health care Henoko human rights Iraq Iraq, Afganistan and the War on Terror Iraq and Afghanistan, opposing the wars Israel Japan Korea labor issues Latin America Middle East military North Korea nuclear nuclear waste Obama Okinawa Okinawa Palestine peace protest protest and resistance racism/human rights radiation state crimes Syria Takae Tepco Trump U.S. War world news English ニュース/社会問題 人権 平和、憲法9条

Design and Hosting for Progressives

Donate/寄付

Please support our work. This includes costs involved in producing this news site as well as our free hosting service for activists, teachers and students. Donations/寄付 can be sent to us via PayPal or Donately. You can also click on the buttons below to make a one-time donation.




Work with us

TokyoProgressive
supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Footer

All opinions are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries. The material on this site is distributed without profit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyleft 1997-present: tokyoprogressive dot org

TokyoProgressive supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in