Financialization of the Food System: Contextualization in Japan and Developing a Research Agenda

Abstract

The 2025 ARAFE International Symposium, held on November 2, 2025, at Shimane University and online via Zoom Webinar, commenced with a welcome address by Kazuki Taketoshi, President of ARAFE. Taketoshi emphasized the timeliness of the symposium’s theme, noting that Japan’s 2024 re-opening of rice futures markets and the subsequent 2025 rice price crisis had brought questions of financialization into sharp public focus. He expressed hope that the symposium would contribute to both academic understanding and practical policy responses. In my opening remarks as chair, I situated the symposium within a broader historical arc, observing that Japan pioneered one of the world’s first formalized agricultural futures markets with the Dojima Rice Exchange in eighteenth-century Osaka. Yet despite this deep history, contemporary financialization in Japan’s food sector has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. The symposium aimed to address this gap by bringing together international and Japanese scholars to critically engage with the evolving landscape of food system financialization. Nina Takashino (Ritsumeikan University), Keeni Minakshi (Tohoku University), and Motoi Kusadokoro (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) served as moderators throughout the proceedings.