A Critique of the Japanese Agricultural Economics Society

Abstract

This paper is whistle-blowing in opposition to the Japanese Agricultural Economics Society. This society is thriving on the surface; there are many publishing opportunities for agricultural economists, and the enrollments in graduate courses of agricultural economics has increased significantly during the past ten years. However, this reality is filled with vanity—most agricultural economists do not understand even intermediate-level economics; they publicize themselves through bluffs by using difficult languages and equations; and they are unconcerned with the macroeconomic losses caused by the government's agricultural protection policies. This disastrous situation should be compared to the failure of the "export-substitution policy" protection by the large amount of jargon produced by agricultural economists in useless studies that are distributed. In this way, this society forms a shelter for unskilled researchers who want to proceed peacefully with their research projects without undergoing fierce academic training or severe critiques. Cheap mutual admiration rampant in this society also attracts younger generations who want to do what they want just as they please, creating a situation that may be likened to depraved logrolling. In the true sense of research, this society does more harm than good. Some agricultural economists pretend that their major is not "agricultural economics," but something else like "game theory" or "resource economics." But most of them have not acquired sufficient academic ability in these "nonagricultural" fields and prefer remaining in the community of agricultural economists. These self-styled nonagricultural economists are regarded as agricultural economists in this paper. Furthermore, although many universities recently have changed the course name of "agricultural economics" to other names, such as "food economics" or "resource economics," they are also included under the category of "agricultural economics" in this paper.