Generally, the agriculture in Japan is structurally composed of the private agricultural farmers and almost one hundred percent of it are occupied by them. And these agricultural farmers are doing and developing their activities getting supported by the bodies with advisory leading roles with function in marketing various agricultural products, also to supply miscellaneous materials for production, to run credit and mutual aid insurance and also to manufacture processed goods and push on the use of them in order to improve their daily lives better. The advisory organization, the Nokyo, is itself a body seeking no profits, but nonetheless this must be a business organization possible to last and prosper steadily by itself. The marketing activities of the agricultural products are the most anticipated by the members of the Cooperatives. However, the cooperative economic business including the marketing of agricultural products and the purchasing input materials for farmers are frequently unprofitable and practically the profits earned by the credit and insurance business usually make up for the loss of them. However, these most profitable credit business is facing decreased profits because of the shrinkage of the profits induced by the recent monetary liberalization and also the influences caused by the collapse the bubble- economic, thus resulting in the worsened business condition of the Nokyo. As a result of this, promotion and gains of mutual aid insurance were spurred, yet they are facing the limits now, thus resulting in that the establishing and building up of the concrete economic basis should be severely demanded. At present, reorganization is being promoted earnestly in the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives. The plan of absorbing and merging the Unit Agri. Coop., which totals to 3,400 in number at present, into 1,000 units collected more extensively, are being promoted in order to reform and change into such organizations possible to maintain the business system with self responsibility. Otherwise, the plan of integration is being performed with efforts by unifying the present three-grades system such as the Unit Agri. Coop., Prefectural Federations and the National Agri. Coop. Federations, into these reformed two staged organization. However, this rationalization measure has such demerits and dangers as follows: first, the local characteristics of the Agri. Coop. activies may be lost due to the integration and then also the democratic operation, which would be possible by the members' direct participation may threaten to be receded. Also, it could be pointed out that the reorganization which would be performed by dividing respective businesses might result in losing the advantages in competition because these competitive advantages come from extensive overall characteristics peculiar to Japan's agriculture, in other words, each farmer is running his business by doing diversified business operations. At present, keen competition is being spreaded and expanded because starting with the liberalization of the rice, other industries are entering and advancing in the farm villages. Therefore, it should be necessary to organize and establish the cooperative activities matching the various demands of the members and also based on each local feature rather than the standardized national-scale reorganization.

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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.

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Since the last half of 1980's, mass sales stores established in main business condition of vegetables and fruits retail stores. This paper is intended as an investigation how the structure of producing and shipping of vegetables growing districts changes through direct connection with mass sales stores. I analyzed for the object of two agricultural cooperatives, Haboro and Higashikawa in Hokkaido. The following results were obtained: with the progress of direct connection with mass sales stores, various changes happened to growing districts. For example, pre-packaging, dealing in only the core of products, "borderless assembling"-to assemble vegetables from other districts- and "forced diversification"-to be forced to increase in items of vegetable in the same districts. "Borderless assembling" is caused by the execution of quantitive contract with mass sales stores and "forced diversification" is caused by an effect on the cost reduction and by the advantage to product differentiation in their stores. This means are a shift of the wholesale functions on the districts by mass sales stores. It is because "borderless assembling" is necessary to obtain sufficient lot, which wholesalers and shipping groups once took charge of. Thus growing districts have been burdened with a wholesale function of assembling. "Forced diversification" can assort more kinds of vegetables in the same districts, which also means a shift of wholesale function of dispersion which once took middlemen's charge on growing districts. Above changes by mass sales stores are based on the accumulation of their retail informations and the practical use of delivery centers.

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