On April 22 – 24, U.S. Embassy, Tokyo’s Senior Agricultural Attaché Elizabeth Autry and Agricultural Specialist Nobuko Sugimoto visited Kochi prefecture in Shikoku Island. The purpose of the visit was to learn about the structure of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) and differences in their goals, as well as meet with farmers and local officials to exchange ideas. The site visit included terraced rice fields (hard to manage rice production due to limited accessibility of mechanical devices), yuzu production farms ( to learn how they became profitable despite several decades of challenges), vegetables (eggplants and peppers) packing houses, and the Tosa rice brewing factory (to see how sake is made through grinding rice, application of Koji fungus, and fermentation). Kochi prefecture is now promoting exports of their yuzu products and Tosa sake