Japan’s Agro-Food Sector : The Politics and Economics of Excess Protection

This book describes the profound structural change in Japan's agriculture from its politically marginalized, economically fragmented, traditional labour-intensive postwar mode of production to its current dual modern shape of a highly capitalized, politically organized and protected sector. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction: Analysing Japan’s Agro-Food Sector....Pages 1-5 Agricultural Development until the Land Reform of 1946....Pages 6-23 Social and Economic Change in Japan’s Post-War Agriculture....Pages 24-44 Agricultural Cooperatives: the Nokyo System....Pages 45-52 The Upstream and Downstream Industries....Pages 53-94 Distribution and Consumption....Pages 95-107 Farm Politics....Pages 108-130 Agricultural Markets and Product Policies....Pages 131-160 International Implications....Pages 161-184 The Future of Japan’s Agro-Food Sector....Pages 185-203 Back Matter....Pages 204-222 This book describes the profound structural change in Japan's agriculture from its politically marginalized, economically fragmented, traditional labor-intensive post-war mode of production to its current dual modern shape of a highly capitalized, politically organized and protected sector dominated by prosperous part-timers and their agricultural cooperatives, coexisting with a shrink minority of commercial full-time farmers.