The purpose of this paper is to examine the current issues surrounding the establishment of a rice production center in the Tohoku region under the policies reforming the rice industry through a case study on the actual condisions of rice producion in Akita Prefecture. The critical point to these issues is the restructuring of the agricultural cooperative's joint selling system. Akita Prefecture succeeded in establishing itself as a brand-rice production center after the second half of 1980's. Since then, production of brand-rice led to a monoculture, and a prefectural united agricultural cooparatives has taken responsibility for selling large lots of this brand-rice. The agricultural cooparative's joint selling system has been maintained in spite of the sharp fall in rice prices in the second half of 1990's under the enforced new rice policies. However, it is a current issue that a regional gap brought about the improving quality of rice is in conflict with such system. For the establishment of a new order in such a system, it is necessary that a prefectural united agricultural cooparative performs its duties as an organizer of a rice production center.

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Since the new "Food Act" was enacted in 1995, the price of rice has shown dramatic fluctuations and large price reductions. The price of the Niigata-produced "Koshihikari", the top brand in Japan, has fallen more than 20 percent during this period. Producers and the agricultural cooperatives in Niigata Prefecture have struggled to adopt measures to reduce the damages from this price reduction. In the midst of such difficulties to most rice producing areas, a new rice policy is being enforced. This new rice policy has characteristics including the following: abolition of "planned rice distribution systems", the changing of crops at producers' discretion and increased liberalization of distribution. Facing such changes in the rice policy, producers and agricultural-coops in Niigata Prefecture are taking measures in response. That noted, many still have difficulties regarding effectiveness and the possibility of realization.

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This paper considers first the problem of the present dealing system for rice and the effect of the revised Food Law and second, an analysis of the rice marketing strategies of agricultural cooperatives in Fukuoka Prefecture. The market share of bid dealings has stuck to the minimum line of bidding duty. From the present onward, the market share of the direct-sale dealings and the negotiated transaction will be increased. The advanced marketing strategies of agricultural cooperatives have not achieved competition with famous or national brands in Tohoku and Hokuriku but have achieved competition in such areas as brown rice. The cooperatives have built marketing strategies that yield a special relationship with the customer. It is clear that organic rice and value-added rice have obtained a fixed evaluation in the retail stage, which can be considered product differentiation at the farm stage. The production of those kinds of rice has increased under the closed market channels with specific production areas. However, more than an organic-rice or value-added strategy, a general marketing strategy for rice may be one that will ensure a higher quality standard in the food factory stage of the local elevator. This forms a quality brand as representative of the production area. Such standard unification leads to a clear statement of the production history as a production area and introduction of traceability. However, any such strategy is subject to the carrying out of a negotiated transaction to the ideal contract dealings including price formation in a future. On the other hand, the prefectural headquarters of agricultural cooperatives should also strengthen marketing strategies, including advertisement and sales promotion as the direct-sale dealings progress in the future. Not all agricultural cooperatives can adopt positive marketing strategies independently, and the respective prefectural headquarters need to perform functional assignments, including commercial transactions. A suitable functional assignment between the prefectures and agricultural cooperatives and will grasp the key of future marketing strategy.

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Many countries in the world have been tightening food safety activities in the light of growing concern regarding food safety. At the same time, CODEX is trying to set international standards on food safety issues. In the U.S.A., a National Food Safety Initiative was issued in 1997 which stressed the improvement of food safety testing methods and a precaution system. In addition, the Produce and Imported Food Safety Initiative was also issued to assure that imported foods are safe. America's food safety policy can be divided into three sectors. The first can be called the voluntary system, which includes both enterprises' voluntary measures under market pressure for safer food production and government support and/or coordination for the enterprise's efforts. The second sector is mandatory policy, in which the government intervenes in the food safety issues by means of laws and regulations. The third is Production Liability Law, which provides food manufacturers legal incentives for producing safe food products. This paper examines these three sectors of U.S food safety policy, focusing in particular on the food safety control system and food safety information regulations. The paper also considers problems and the future direction of the U.S food safety policy.

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Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, which considers hazards in processes as occurring in "Critical Control Points" and sets "Critical Limit" on them, is essentially risk management with close watch over production processes and quick response to emergency. HACCP was invented in the United States and was widely applied in plants as risk management after the law obligated establishments to introduce HACCP was enacted in 1996. Although HACCP is the most advanced mechanism of risk management, it still has some problems. Regarding verification, FSIS cannot react to non-compliance of a plant because of obscure rules regarding both correction itself and when corrective actions can be taken after inspector discovery. Nothing but sending a Non-compliance Record (NR) to the establishment can be done and implementing corrective actions could be delayed. Therefore, it is difficult to take urgent actions against non-compliance under the present verification system. Sometimes an inspector prefers discussing non-compliance with plant management rather than sending NRs. The FSIS verification system has another serious problem in its shortage of inspectors with adequate knowledge and experience. With inappropriate rules and light punishments, verification dose not work as properly designed. In the case of product recall, plants do not have incentives to implement recall thoroughly and recalled products are, in fact, very few because FSIS has no authority to order recall.

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Because perishables decay easily and can not be stocked on long-term basis, they are classified as convenience goods. Therefore, perishable distribution tends toward frequent and small lot transaction patterns. Moreover, because detailed information about the quality change of perishables in circulation and the weather situation of a producing area is in high demand, the trader must build an information transfer system which is more advanced than that for other goods. In this research, the paradigm conversion mechanism into specific long-range dealings from the unspecified multitude dealings is examined from the viewpoint of microeconomics and analyzed as an advancement of domestic and foreign data network systems. The findings include the following. When implementing a data network system, especially in the early stages, formation of a level closed distribution channel is unavoidable. Following this, mutually complementing relations emerge vertically as corporations specialize in their core business. However, if the scale of the lot which corresponds to the system management cost isn't reached, the implementation effect doesn't emerge sufficiently. If the actual transaction does not involve perishables, an asymmetrical information condition emerges, therefore, the paper suggests that efforts to organize something to complement an information system, for example "a sales organization for human communication" or "branding to rationalize information exchange," are important.

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In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Farmers Markets (FMs) in the United States. Nearly half of all FMs are run by nonprofit organizations (NPOs). This paper surveys the national trends and related policies of FMs in the US and outlines the characteristics of FMs operated by NPOs by conducting a case study of the Portland Farmers Market. The main findings are as follows. 1) Volunteer labor is recruited to play major roles in operating the FM, which makes it easy for local people to take part in the activity. 2) Vendors take full responsibility for their sales, including the setting up and dismantling of their booths, as well as compliance with related laws and rules. This results in their staying at the FM for a longer period than that of FM vendors in Japan 3) Local companies sponsor FMs by making financial contributions, advertising FMs and conducting fundraising events for FMs. 4) FMs aim not only at direct marketing but also consumer education. The various events at FMs such as cooking classes for kids, food sampling and chef's demonstrations provide local residents with the opportunity to taste local foods.

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In line with economic liberalization and deregulation policies adopted by the Malaysian government over the last decade, the Rice Marketing Authority (LPN) was privatized in 1996. This paper clarifies the impact of the LPN's privatization on all actors relevant to rice marketing from the viewpoint of political economy. The findings clearly suggest that the privatization benefited these actors to some extent.

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This paper examines the surplus labor and marginal productivity of input factors of the agricultural sector of Shandong province in China through an agricultural production function analysis. The data examined includes cross sectional data classified by area starting with the 1990s. The examination clarifies that labor elasticity was very low and has recently decreased. Furthermore, the gap of average labor productivity and growth rates have both expanded together with areal dummy variables. Although some agriculture entrepreneur and labor absorption policies have been implemented since the 1990s, the effects of these have been limited and surplus labor has increased in the agricultural sector from a viewpoint of marginal labor productivity.

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Under recent rural economic policy, production and marketing practices for livestock products of Inner Mongolia have changed. The case of a leading company in Inner Mongolia shows that business scale expansion and market situation improvement are now measured by connecting market and livestock farmers, under the development of a market-economy. It is possible to expand livestock farming business on the basis of opportunities provided by the expansion of business and market. In accordance with the production strategy of the "Grass Development Group", protection of the prairie ecology and development of livestock production are being realized under a lamb breeding farm system. It is believed that by demonstrating the effects of 'green brands' an enhancement of internal and external market can be realized.

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Increasing problems concerning pesticide residue have emerged. In a similar trend, problems concerning the detection of unauthorized additives has emerged. The importation of plums exemplifies such problems. This paper clarifies aspects of the raw procurement and quality control systems of a Chinese enterprise, T company. T company uses a broker mediation system where the broker both manages procurement and is the farmer of the plum trees. The plum tree processing of T company is not a system that can accommodate the manufacturing process. If a problem occurs, the cause of that problem is not ascertained, increasing the difficulty of solving the problem. Moreover, product quality is not inspected up to the stage where the product is exported, therefore the discovery of problems is difficult at early stages.

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Pesticide residue as a problem was fully realized in 2002. A Chinese frozen food company, 'A' Company, as requested by a Japanese company who was the customer, has established a quality control system based on a farm system. In this system, the worker and administrator work according to a cultivation plan, with the use of agricultural chemicals managed by the regulations of 'A' firm. This system has the following advantages. High-value-added farm products can be exported, the result being that new customers can be acquired and the amount of overall exports increase. Production information is disclosed on a Web site, the result being that both company and customers increase efficiency. Finally, the farmer can obtain a steady income and the land fee. The following problems remain in this system. Purchase of a production facility is required and labor costs increase as an increasing number of workers is needed. It is difficult for the company to acquire acreage and industrialized zone sites as well as to expand the existing site. Finally, it is necessary to educate the staff, in order to ensure expertise concerning quality control.

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In this paper, the development of a Chinese sericulture industry under WTO organization and its policy correspondence to both the WTO organization and the case of Japan in Chinese sericulture industry are analyzed. With the affiliation of China to the WTO, the situation of the Chinese sericulture industry is changed sharply, and change of the situation in the international market is increasingly affecting the Chinese sericulture industry. In response, China has performed a series of corresponding policy accommodations to the WTO organization to preserve stable production of silk products and improve China's competitive power in the international market of these products. Therefore, improving the quality of the cocoon, the raw silk and the other silk products is expected and export expansion is also being aimed at. Finally, export expansion to Japan, which is an important market for high quality Chinese silk products, is also being aimed at.

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This paper investigates the marketing channels of fruits and vegetables (F&Vs), focusing on the conduct of farmers and wholesalers around Khon Kaen city, northeast Thailand. Multi-staged channels have been developed around F&V marketing in northeast Thailand, with most farmers shipping produce mainly to primary wholesalers who secure produce at farm gates. Some primary wholesalers try to attract farmers by selling agricultural inputs and giving detailed price information. Secondary wholesalers do business at the wholesale market in the city. Their business scale is relatively large, but they are still negative about transacting with big supermarkets. Preliminary margin analysis reveals a large difference between the farm gate price and the wholesale price for retailers.

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This paper clarifies the working conditions for migrant peasants in urban areas and analyzes the relationship between agricultural management and migration through four investigations into the actual situation in the Henan Province of China. The paper concludes that most of migrant peasants are engaged in building and earn low wages. The income differential between agricultural and non-agricultural labor is found to be determined by the number participating in the labor force in a household.

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