Abstract
Registered wholesale markets have played the central role of fresh foodstuff trading in Japan. Throughout the pre-war and post-war periods, many efforts were made to develop this market system's facilities and functions. The system has worked rather well and has contributed in keeping price stability through adjustment of supply and demand of perishable foodstuffs in the market. However, after the so-called 'oil crisis', the Japanese economy had to make a big structural change from an export oriented economy to a domestic demand oriented one. Reflecting this structural change, the marketing sector including the registered wholesale markets, was also forced to adjust to a new environmental economic outlook. Due to this adjustment process, the wholesaler's trading fixed cost has increased rapidly and allowed larger differentials of management performance to occur between wholesalers. Furthermore, the wholesale market's structural change has caused difficulty to the market's price setting function, especially for the intermediate wholesalers. In order to overcome these hardships, wholesalers have been forced to increase their value, added productivity and their firm sizes. They must also attain a balance in their collection and distribution of fresh foodstuff in the wholesale market, because any imbalances in these activities will further retard the price setting function. Two policies are necessary to solve these problems. The first is promotion of restructing of the management of wholesalers and intermediate wholesalers. The second is to improve the wholesale marketing system itself for better performance of its market functions.
