USSEC participated in the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)’s Japan & Cooperator Meeting on May 28.  Members of the USSEC Japan team, including USSEC Country Director – Japan Mitsuyuki Nishimura; North Asia Regional Human Utilization Manager and Japan Human Utilization Director Masako Tateishi; and animal utilization consultants Katsufumi Maekawa and Yoshi Hashizawa participated in the meeting held at the American Center Japan at the U.S. Embassy.  Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, attended this meeting and expressed her appreciation of the work of U.S. cooperators and efforts in trade relations to promote U.S. agriculture products.
U.S. Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) Director Steve Shnitzler introduced the new Agricultural Specialist at FAS Tokyo and presented planned activities for FY14 which included U.S. organic promotion due to the recent Japan Organic Equivalence Agreement with USDA Organic Certification; U.S. food safety; biotech Issues; U.S. food promotion to food service industry; and the promotion of U.S. food products.
USSEC Japan has been closely working with FAS Tokyo and will continue to cooperate with FAS / ATO for trade relations as well as market promotion activities on behalf of U.S. soy.