Japanese hens deserve equal concern from Japan's food sellers

Jasmine Ortlieb-Hirose is the global corporate relations coordinator for the Asia region for Mercy for Animals, a group campaigning to prevent cruelty to farmed animals.

Cramped, cruel battery cages remain the bleak reality for an estimated 95% or more of laying hens on Japanese poultry farms. In the pork industry, around 90% of producers still use gestation crates that tightly restrict the movement of sows. Japanese cattle farmers continue to dehorn their animals without anesthesia, a practice banned in New Zealand and the U.K.