抄録
Japan imports an overwhelming amount of food items from China, accounting for nearly a half of what is imported from whole East Asia. China, however, has begun to drastically reduce its export to Japan during the 2000s. This marked change in trade environment may have somehow affected the food development import scheme that has been led by Japan. In this context, this paper aims to explore the subject by choosing a case of frozen vegetable, a representative item in development import, and studying the corporate actions with respect to safety management measures implemented in transactions between a major Chinese frozen vegetable manufacturer and an equally major Japanese frozen vegetable development importer.
The case study reports that (i) since around 2010, the safety measures that the Japanese importer independently requests have been neglected whereas a system comprising multiple problems has instead been adopted and that (ii) notwithstanding, the Japanese corporation cannot help but accept such a system and purchase the products. In other words, contrary to the conventional bilateral relation, the leadership on the part of Japan has been undermined.
In light of the circumstance described above, this paper indicates that the Japan-China bilateral practice of food development import has now come to a turning point, as well as points out some future challenges to be addressed in this research domain.
