On March 16, 2026, at the 139th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Tropical Agriculture (JSTA) held at the University of Tsukuba, Dr. DAN Haruyuki, Senior Researcher in the Rural Development Division, received the JSTA President’s Award and delivered a commemorative lecture.

On March 17, 2026, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) launched the JIRCAS Research Archive. Developed as part of the "Showa 100" initiatives, this archive systematically organizes reports on field surveys and research collaborations conducted worldwide by overseas researchers from the Tropical Agriculture Research Center (TARC) and JIRCAS. It also includes photographic records documenting activities from that era.

The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) will exhibit at [Smart Energy Week “Biomass EXPO / International Biomass Exhibition”], to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from Tuesday, March 17 to Thursday, March 19, 2026.

On March 10, 2026, Prof. Andrea Rocchi, President of the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), and Mr. Sergio Marchi, Director General of the Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (ISMEA), visited JIRCAS and exchanged views with President KOYAMA Osamu and other executives.

In February 2026, an episode titled “Sorgoleone with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao” was released on Field, Lab, Earth, a podcast distributed by three major U.S. crop science societies — the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.

From February 17 to 18, 2026, the “TERRA Africa Project FY2025 Activity Report Meeting” was held at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, Northern Ghana. A total of 54 participants attended, including researchers from JIRCAS, UDS, and the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), as well as representatives from the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) and The Nippon Foundation.

On January 28, 2026, Dr. ABE Hisashi, Director of the Forestry Division at JIRCAS, attended the 30th Executive Committee Meeting of the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI) held in Coimbatore, India. The meeting took place as part of a session within the International Conference on Population and Conservation Genetics 2026.

On February 9–10, 2026, an international workshop titled “Environmentally Adaptive Forestry Techniques for Southeast Asian Tree Species” was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The workshop summarized the achievements of the medium- and long-term plan under the grant-funded project “Environmentally Adaptive Forestry.” Launched in fiscal year 2021, this project aims to develop technologies for the restoration of forest resources in tropical forests degraded by overharvesting and to establish methods for selecting tree species and varieties with enhanced environmental adaptability.

On Thursday, February 26, the Food Tech Public-Private Council’s FY2025 3rd General Meeting / Proposal and Reporting Session, hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, was held at Tokyo Innovation Base STAGE (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). From JIRCAS, Dr. MARUI Junichiro, Senior Researcher in the Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division, took the stage to deliver a presentation titled "Taking Japanese Koji to the World." He introduced international joint research currently being conducted with Japanese companies and researchers from Thailand and Laos to deploy food production technologies that utilize Japanese koji to create safe, highly nutritious food products overseas. 

On January 27, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIBM) signed the Record of Discussions for the FY2025 technical cooperation project titled “Enhancing Biomass Utilization for Sustainable Management of Oil Palm Plantation and Promoting Circular Economy by Utilizing Applied Biotechnology Methods.” This marks the official launch of a new international cooperation initiative in Malaysia aimed at transforming untapped resources into food.