- Home
- Member
- mikkom
- mikkom's entries
- Can TPP be the Black Ships of Commodore Perry?
Can TPP be the Black Ships of Commodore Perry?
TPP stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership（環太平洋戦略的経済連携協定）.
Our prime minister attended the meeting in Yokohama as an observer, and expressed his intentions to participate in the TPP..
There were some demonstrations against participation in the TPP.
Most of them were farmers.
Japanese farmers have been protected by our government since 1960.
Much of our tax money has been used to save the agriculture industry.
It was OK when agriculture accounted for around 10% of the GDP in 1960.
Now it is only 1% and 65% of farmers are old enough to retire.
In spite of all the money, our food self-sufficiency is under 40% now, which is low compared with 80% in 1960.
Most of the lawmakers are elected in prefectures, where the percentage of farmers in the population is relatively high because the main industry is agriculture.
As those lawmakers want to secure their seats, they do their best to protect globally-uncompetitive agriculture.
As a result, much of our tax money is used in vain.
For example, our government had fixed the price of rice, then too many farmers had planted it, consequently too much rice was produced.
Therefore the policy of "gentan"(減反）, or reducing the rice fields, is practiced.
The farmers who stopped or changed their crops from rice to other crops were subsidized.
Too many subsidies ares suffocating the industry.
Overly expensive food made in Japan is starving people working in other industries.
Now is the time to change this ridiculous policy.
I hope TPP can be the Black Ships of Commodore Perry.
Our prime minister attended the meeting in Yokohama as an observer, and expressed his intentions to participate in the TPP..
There were some demonstrations against participation in the TPP.
Most of them were farmers.
Japanese farmers have been protected by our government since 1960.
Much of our tax money has been used to save the agriculture industry.
It was OK when agriculture accounted for around 10% of the GDP in 1960.
Now it is only 1% and 65% of farmers are old enough to retire.
In spite of all the money, our food self-sufficiency is under 40% now, which is low compared with 80% in 1960.
Most of the lawmakers are elected in prefectures, where the percentage of farmers in the population is relatively high because the main industry is agriculture.
As those lawmakers want to secure their seats, they do their best to protect globally-uncompetitive agriculture.
As a result, much of our tax money is used in vain.
For example, our government had fixed the price of rice, then too many farmers had planted it, consequently too much rice was produced.
Therefore the policy of "gentan"(減反）, or reducing the rice fields, is practiced.
The farmers who stopped or changed their crops from rice to other crops were subsidized.
Too many subsidies ares suffocating the industry.
Overly expensive food made in Japan is starving people working in other industries.
Now is the time to change this ridiculous policy.
I hope TPP can be the Black Ships of Commodore Perry.
Latest entries
Entries by Month
| 2010 |
|---|
| December (2) |
| November (3) |
| October (5) |
| September (5) |
| August (12) |
| July (15) |
| June (4) |
| April (2) |
| March (15) |
| February (10) |
| 2009 |
| December (11) |
Our prime minister attended the meeting as an observer in Yokohama and expressed intentions to participate in the TPP.
There are some demonstrations against participation in the TPP.
Much of our tax money has been used to save agricultural industry.
It was OK when agriculture accounted for around 10% of the GDP in 1960.
In spite of all the money, our food self-sufficiency is under 40% now, which is too low compared with 80% in 1960.
Most of lawmakers are elected in prefectures, where the ratio of farmers' population is relatively high because the main industry is agriculture.
As a result, much (of our/the) tax money is used in vain.
For example, our government had fixed the price of rice, then too many farmers had been making it, and consequently too much rice was produced.
The farmers who stop or change their crops from rice to other crops are subsidized.
Too much subsidizing/many subsidies is suffocating the industry.
Overly expensive food made in Japan is starving people working in other industries.
Our prime minister attended the meeting in Yokohama as an observer, and expressed his intentions to participate in the TPP.****I changed the position of 'as an observer' to a point where it is clear that he attended the meeting, which took place in yokohama, as an observer. Worded as you originally had it could mean that he attended the meeting (which might have taken place in Timbuktu) as an observer who was in yokohama
There were some demonstrations against participation in the TPP.****Please write consistently in the past tense when reporting on something that happened. ("happened" - past tense, ne?)with
Most of them were farmers.
Much of our tax money has been used to save the agriculture industry.
Most of our/the lawmakers are elected in prefectures, where the ratio of farmers' population is relatively high because the main industry is agriculture.+++If you use ratio of, it must be A to B Ex. ratio of farmers to non-farmers is 3 to 1, or farmers to factory workers is 18 to 1. In this case maybe you should substitute the word "percentage" for ratio. Most of lawmakers are elected in prefectures, where the percentage of farmers in the population is relatively high because the main industry is agriculture.Correct
For example, our government had fixed the price of rice, then too many farmers planted it, and consequently too much rice was produced.
The farmers who stopped or changed their crops from rice to other crops were subsidized.j
Too many subsidies are suffocating the industry.
Now is the time to change this ridiculous policy.