Help in Japan

[ValValls]

I had chickens nack in the USA, and dreamed of having them again now that I am in Japan. We are now a year or two away from having a home with enough land to do so.
However, Japan has changed laws since I first researched having chickens. I can no longer buy them, and I need some kind of license to own them!?
Anybody know anything? What can I do? Where do I go? Would they even have these classes in English?! My Japanese isn't good enough!

Please help!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I had chickens nack in the USA, and dreamed of having them again now that I am in Japan. We are now a year or two away from having a home with enough land to do so.
However, Japan has changed laws since I first researched having chickens. I can no longer buy them, and I need some kind of license to own them!?
Anybody know anything? What can I do? Where do I go? Would they even have these classes in English?! My Japanese isn't good enough!

Please help!

I can't help with most of that but I know that over the last 15 years, commercial poultry farms have lobbied Asian governments to pass laws that discourage chicken ownership by individuals. In some cases they have gone into farms and euthanized all the native flocks.
Their claim was that these indigenous flocks were harboring disease that made its way into big barns of imported egg and meat breeds that didn't have any resistance to those diseases.
In the process, they destroyed hundreds of thousands of genetically unique chickens that had natural resistance to these diseases. IMHO, that is the opposite of what we should be doing in the world to maintain genetic diversity in poultry. They fly eggs and chicks by the millions from these companies like Hy-Line in the US. They don't want any chance of vectors of pathogens to which they know their birds will all succumb.

 

[iwltfum]

I can't help with most of that but I know that over the last 15 years, commercial poultry farms have lobbied Asian governments to pass laws that discourage chicken ownership by individuals. In some cases they have gone into farms and euthanized all the native flocks.
Their claim was that these indigenous flocks were harboring disease that made its way into big barns of imported egg and meat breeds that didn't have any resistance to those diseases.
In the process, they destroyed hundreds of thousands of genetically unique chickens that had natural resistance to these diseases. IMHO, that is the opposite of what we should be doing in the world to maintain genetic diversity in poultry. They fly eggs and chicks by the millions from these companies like Hy-Line in the US. They don't want any chance of vectors of pathogens to which they know their birds will all succumb.

Wow.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

I can't help with most of that but I know that over the last 15 years, commercial poultry farms have lobbied Asian governments to pass laws that discourage chicken ownership by individuals. In some cases they have gone into farms and euthanized all the native flocks.
Their claim was that these indigenous flocks were harboring disease that made its way into big barns of imported egg and meat breeds that didn't have any resistance to those diseases.
In the process, they destroyed hundreds of thousands of genetically unique chickens that had natural resistance to these diseases. IMHO, that is the opposite of what we should be doing in the world to maintain genetic diversity in poultry. They fly eggs and chicks by the millions from these companies like Hy-Line in the US. They don't want any chance of vectors of pathogens to which they know their birds will all succumb.

I can’t anymore.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I couldn't find the original study I read but this may shed some light.

http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/251052/aj202e00.pdf

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
I have no idea, you need to get information from the Ag. Ministry, where ever that is. You'll need a translator to help too.
Good luck!
Mary

 

[ValValls]

I can't help with most of that but I know that over the last 15 years, commercial poultry farms have lobbied Asian governments to pass laws that discourage chicken ownership by individuals. In some cases they have gone into farms and euthanized all the native flocks.
Their claim was that these indigenous flocks were harboring disease that made its way into big barns of imported egg and meat breeds that didn't have any resistance to those diseases.
In the process, they destroyed hundreds of thousands of genetically unique chickens that had natural resistance to these diseases. IMHO, that is the opposite of what we should be doing in the world to maintain genetic diversity in poultry. They fly eggs and chicks by the millions from these companies like Hy-Line in the US. They don't want any chance of vectors of pathogens to which they know their birds will all succumb.

I would be devistated if someone killed my babies.... :'(

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would be devistated if someone killed my babies.... :'(

Imagine if you were a villager with large flocks of indigenous free range birds and authorities destroyed them all to protect some commercial flocks from the US with fragile immune systems.
HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) has been a global problem for almost 10 years. Some years it is in the Western Hemisphere, sometimes it is more prevalent in the eastern.
In the US we had the most devastating events that came from migratory birds and infected both commercial and backyard flocks. I think it started along the Pacific flyway and then the worst effects were along the Mississippi flyway. It started late 2014 and continued through mid 2015 as it moved to the Atlantic flyway. Once it got into a flock, all hope was lost. I believe it was H5N2. Tens of millions of turkeys and chickens were euthanized by government mandate.
Just in Pennsylvania and Virginia alone 17 million turkeys, chickens and guineas were euthanized. For large commercial flocks, they would foam the entire building to suffocate all the birds. Then move in a bobcat and push them all to the center to allow them to compost in place.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5120423/
In the NPIP program, they also offer AI testing. Some states started mandating a flock to be AI clean to allow importation of birds and eggs. I inquired with my state tester about the AI test. He recommended against it in my case. Since I had an extremely rare breed that could actually be immune but could test positive for antibodies. If the antigen test shows the presence of AI antibodies, they would retest in short order. If they still tested positive, they would euthanize all birds on the property. That would be devastating since there are virtually no other birds of this breed obtainable in the US. Needless to say, I avoided the AI test.