Japan has kept fresh potatoes out for decades — officially over pest control.
Processed potatoes and frozen fries were opened up step by step. Fresh table potatoes were the last holdout.
Nothing is decided yet. Talks remain at a "technical" risk-assessment stage. But some say the groundwork is quietly moving forward.
A pest-control question, ending up as a card to ease Trump's tariff pressure — that's the part worth pausing on.
📄 The actual 2006 rule (Japanese, MAFF):
https://t.co/Gh3XzEP2si
Not investment advice.
→ https://t.co/RfL5a67guE
#じゃがいも #食料安全保障 #防疫 #トランプ関税
Japan's green tea exports hit a record high of about ¥72.1 billion in 2025.
By the numbers, Japanese tea is winning globally.
But behind that success, several very different struggles are unfolding at the same time🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/MDtxoI4mOG
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#maccha #GreenTea #resources
Sea surface temperatures around Japan have risen by about 1.3°C over the past century.
That's more than twice the global average pace.
Bluefin tuna are moving north, saury are vanishing — and creatures that shouldn't be there are starting to show up🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/ixxsAokq0j
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#OceanWarming #ChangeInFishCatch #BluefinTuna
"Defense spending hits a record high" — for the 12th year in a row.
But that figure is a nominal amount. What happened to the yen's value over the same period?🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/8MFqVCPC24
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#DefenseForce #budget #DefenseSpending #WeakJapaneseYen
After semiconductors, it's medicine.
The US has passed a law restricting deals with "biotechnology companies of concern."
Meanwhile, Japan faces a different problem — most of its drug ingredients depend on China🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/W0UuZZvnrk
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#biosecurity
"At least 3 days, ideally a week."
That's the standard guideline from Japan's disaster preparedness agencies for household stockpiling.
Water, food, and one more thing — a quantity that's easy to underestimate🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/wI39b8Bog3
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#DisasterPreparedness #EmergencySupplies #Stockpile
On sunny days, there's so much surplus electricity that power plants are told to "stop generating."
This is happening frequently across regions.
A new kind of facility is now being built to address this🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/M26gmdDaVV
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#BESS #GridScaleBattery #RenewableEnergy #LithiumIonBattery #NationalSecurity
"Japan is buying back rice from its own reserves — again." Some may find that puzzling.
Over the past two years, this system has run in reverse, again and again.
Rice released that didn't lower prices, reserves that ran dry — and now, a buyback🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/xgrQvlf0Tz
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#FoodSecurity #rice #StockPiling
There's an island that, at high tide, barely rises a few dozen centimeters above the sea.
Okinotorishima.
If it sinks, Japan would lose an exclusive economic zone larger than its own land area.
The concrete deteriorates. And the coral it now relies on faces its own crisis from rising sea temperatures🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/POTGjsStZP
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#EEZ #CoralReef #NationalSecurity
Over 99.5% of Japan's trade relies on maritime shipping.
94% of its crude oil comes from the Middle East. 90% of that passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan's daily life runs through a single, narrow line on the map🧵
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GeoPolitics | Behind the Headlines
https://t.co/3QohRZx5TV
Not investment advice.
投資助言ではありません。
#SeaLanes #ChokePoints #NationalSecurity