Abstract
As Japanese domestic food market shrinks, it becomes more important for food and agricultural sectors in Japan to acquire foreign market, especially in East Asia. If Japanese food export expands, Japanese food trade will become bilateral, which is intra-industry trade. In this paper, the structure of the food trade in East Asia is analyzed from the viewpoint of intra-industry trade. The Grubel-Lloyd index of the trade flows of 12 countries / regions are calculated and the factors affecting the level of the index are investigated with tobit regression models. Brülhart's A index is also calculated in order to analyze the changes in the intra-industry trade. It is considered that as the differences in income per capita among countries / regions get smaller, the intra-industry trade in East Asia will be promoted.
