We started out a very long day of activities here at the IFAJ Congress with a sort of a press conference at the “Imagine” studio of the Japan Broadcasting System, NHK. You can see the title on the glass wall of the studio here with the activities going on inside. I don’t have the information on what the building is but I’m sure someone can supply it. Apparently they had to acquire the rights to the name from Yoko Ono. The words to John Lennon’s song are also on the wall and there’s a plaque inside explaining this.

Anyway, we heard from several people including the director of agricultural policy for the Japanese Agricultural Cooperative system.

He included a very well done video explaining how and why the system came into being and how it has evolved over the years. There are about 9.9 million cooperative members with almost half of them being classified as associate members.

You can listen to his remarks here: ifaj-07-cooperatives.mp3

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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