Japan Press Weekly

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2019 May 15 - 21 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Farmers hold protest to urge Monsanto to stop selling controversial Roundup weed killer

Farmers and consumers on May 18 held a protest in Tokyo to push Monsanto/Bayer to stop selling genetically-modified seeds and weed killers that are criticized as being carcinogenic. This action was organized in concert with the annual global action against the biochemical manufacturer.

Around 200 people gathered in front of Monsanto’s Japanese subsidiary office building near JR Tokyo Station. The protesters demanded a halt to the sales of GM crops and the herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate, an ingredient suspected to be carcinogenic. Former U.S. company Monsanto is now under the umbrella of the German chemical giant Bayer.

Representatives of a civil group working to protect local seed varieties, the Consumers Union of Japan, farmers’ organizations, and labor unions gave speeches. A woman who is making efforts to ban the sale of Roundup in Japan said that the weed killer is widely sold in DIY stores in Japan, expressing her determination to remove the product from the domestic market in order to protect children’s health.

The link between the use of Roundup and cancer is becoming hard to deny, as shown by the fact that in Roundup cancer lawsuits in the U.S., Monsanto was ordered to pay compensation to users of its product in question. On the other hand, the Japanese government still allows the company to sell the weed killer as well as GM seeds in Japan.

Past related articles:
> Farmers deepen concern over growing control by multinationals of seed market [September 12, 2017]
> Farmers and consumers agree to inaugurate movement to protect Japan’s seeds [July 4, 2017]