This paper proposes that, given the liberalization of agricultural products imports, agricultural cooperative marketing turn attention to commercialization of lower-grade produce. Due to the opening of Japan to apple-juice imports, the market for lower-grade apples has been shifting from a processing market to a fresh apple market. This makes fresh apple prices fall. Moreover, when local producers ask only the wholesale market price for these lower-grade apples, this contributes to the creation of a depressed fresh-apple market. It is therefore necessary to find new commercial outlets (niches) for these lower-grade apples. In Aomori Prefecture, the quantity of apples sold through the agricultural cooperatives is increasing. In addition, lower-grade apples tend to gather in the hands of the agricultural cooperatives, thus affecting their competitive position vis-a-vis private brokers. Therefore, it is clear that one of the challenges facing agricultural cooperative marketing today is finding new markets for lower-grade apples. The example of the Tsugaru Hiraka Agricultural Cooperative is taken up as a case study in the second part of the paper. The Hiraka Cooperative has strengthened its physical distribution function, and by moving lower-grade apples into various markets, has brought about advantageous results for its growers. This shows that it is possible for an agricultural cooperative, by adapting an assertive strategy, to find new commercial outlets for lower grade agricultural products, and thereby bring about realization of profits for the grower. The paper concludes by noting that in this era of import liberalization, agricultural cooperatives should not neglect the commercialization of lower-grade agricultural products, and should commercialize all grades of goods to the advantage to producers. This, in turn, will help agricultural cooperatives realize greater profits for their member growers.

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In 2002, a pesticide residue problem emerged in Japan, ultimately causing a severe decline in the exportation from vegetable processing ventures in China. This paper focuses on the quality control system formation process as a response to this pesticide residue problem on the basis of two aspects. The first was the Chinese government's implementation of policy and standards establishment or amendment to make these practical in improving the quality of vegetables. In particular, the CIQ as an inspecting organization played an important role in promoting plantation production and quality management. The second aspect was the main processing venture's performance related to carrying out new production procedures corresponding to the kinds of vegetables that finally leads to the forming of a new vegetable quality control system, specifically, self-control plantation, consigning plantation and contract plantation. By not collecting vegetable directly from intermediaries or village committees, ventures can from now on fully control the quality of all its materials for processing.

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Using the 'importation development' of Welsh onions as a study case, this paper examines the development of a vegetable 'importation development' system in a collaborated-company in China. The 'importation development' of Welsh onions can be divided into three stages: the introductory period, the expansion period, and the reorganization period. The characteristic and transformation process of each stage was analyzed using a specific example. Three main points were defined in the study. First, in the introductory period, the Japanese company played the role as the leader in the 'importation development' of Welsh onions, and monopolized the operation system was prosecuted in a collaborated-company formed by the Japanese and the Chinese company. Second, in the expansion period, due to the rapid increase of 'importation development' and the importation of Welsh onions to Japan, the monopolized operation in the introductory period was broken, being transformed into a free marketing system. Nevertheless, rapid production and exportation has caused problems such as over production and decline of quality; as a result, the 'importation development' shifted from an expansion period to a reorganization period. In the reorganization period, due to the change of management strategy and the improvement of quality by the Japanese side, the Chinese viewed this as an opportunity to make production independent and reorganize the structure of the cargo collection and alter the marketing from the exportation to Japan solely to the expansion of the distribution in the China for the local market. For 'importation development' of Welsh onions, the production, processing, and exportation/marketing in the local market has been unified. Clearly, 'importation development' has played an important role in the 'industrialization of agriculture' in China.

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Recently, local agri-food systems in all parts of the country have emerged with many local governments promoting such systems through policy in response to this. The objective of this paper is to analyze the execution conditions of the policy for local government to promote local agri-food system and to examine the role which administration should play. While producers and consumers should grapple with local agri-food systems independently, it is also essential that local administrations support such activity. It is necessary for local government to provide guidance for the promotion at the stage, when the diffusion of the ideology of local agri-food system and the maintenance of the system is insufficient. The following concrete policy points are important. 1. Creating an opportunity for local agri-food systems. 2. Identifying the function of information reception and diffusion. 3. Establishing the overall coordination post. 4. Supporting the structure of local agri-food system. Finally, it is important to build connective relations of the related organs, preparing the organizational systems of the local government to carry these out.

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The current Japanese electronic flower auction system has two big problems. One is that the present auction system can not create price stability. It is also the fate of the present system that prices are decided only by the bid(price) from buyers, a result of the law of supply and demand in very short-term viewpoint. Another problem is a measure of the so-called Waiting Mari Strategy, referring to the dominant strategy used in a field of the game theory. The Waiting Mari Strategy retards efficiency distribution in auctions. The Large Transaction System has solved these two problems, by giving priority to big buyers. The price in the present system depends only on bids(price), but the price in LTS depends on the bid and the quantity. The buyer who wants a larger quantity is regarded as a 'big buyer' and given an advantage in price. LTS aims toward the drawing of long-term stable demand of big buyers. According to the simulation in a general model that mixes big buyers and small buyers, the average price under LTS was higher than under the present system. This result is considered to be a characteristic effect of agricultural products.

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The wine market of Japan has been expanding rapidly with its developing economy since the 1970s. Now the Japan wine market has a very high seller concentration and is under the control of a few of large-scale wine makers. Moreover, the Japanese wine industry has largely depended on imported wine and raw materials, with such trends increasing recently for the sake of cost savings and quality improvement. However, there are many small and medium scale wine makers in Japan, which have long been trying to make an original Japan Wine. In this paper, such medium-scale wine makers are analyzed, focusing mainly on how they acquire raw grapes and market their wine.

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This paper outlines the following three conditions for shifting to reduced pesticide cultivation (RPC) in Japanese Agricultural cooperatives (JAs) of Miyazaki prefecture. The first condition is that the average ratio of certified area depends on widespread establishment of RPC techniques. Second, JAs with relatively small numbers of producers show high tendency to shift to RPC completely. This depends on 1) the bargaining power of joint selling, 2) the difficulty in unifying members' opinions, 3) the collecting and shipping facilities, and 4) the burden of certification in JA. Third, in the case of the mini-tomato, the economic condition of participation, especially for marginal producers, is satisfied not by premium but by improvement of their skills.

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In the dairy industry as a whole as well as the large dairy makers operating on a national scale, it appears that fresh milk from a local dairy in the consumer-rich suburbs is important, with the example used as a local brand milk. This paper aims to consider the meaning and the subject of local brand milk through a case analysis of dairy industry producers. The paper clarifies both that the point of "trust and safety" which the characteristic consumer brings to the "local production for local consumption" boom is easy to tie to the establishment of a traceability system and that the time from milking to processing has predominancy in terms of the freshness of milk from a local dairy. However, even if local brand milks which include this notion of freshness are conceived of as a "differentiated commercial product", the influence of realization as a relatively expensive rank also became clear.

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This paper analyzes the formation of employment management systems and their results under the full-time vegetable farmers' collaborating administration in an urban area. The new management form not only shows direction for the problem of horticultural source of vegetables under management specialization, but also plays an important role in the successors' training and support of the part-farm household as well.

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It is widely recognized that an increase in the import of agricultural products and processed products causes damage to the related industry and its farmers. At the moment, average import tax rate of agricultural products is about 12 percent in Japan. Under this tax rate, there are many different kinds of agricultural products at varying quantities, many of which are imported from neighboring Asian countries. The increase of kimchi importation from South Korea has had significant impact on the Japanese pickle industry. This paper analyzes the changes in the Japanese pickle industry and market since the start of kimchi importation. While the importation of kimchi and the processing of kimchi in Japan are corelated, the main factors for these increases remains unclear. In this regard, this study revealed the following points: 1. As taste preferences and processing methods for kimchi were exhaustively studied, a new Japanese-style kimchi was produced and imported kimchi was thus directly incorporated into the Japanese pickle industry. 2. The Japanese pickle industry was stimulated by the importation of kimchi, which had a high profit margin. 3. During the early 1990's, some pickle manufacturers had enough foresight to increase plant investment enabling future kimchi production.

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Since the 1990s, Chinese vegetable exports have increased rapidly, coinciding with the expansion of domestic vegetable production. The changes in Chinese vegetable trade structure were characterized by rapid increase in export quantity, diversification of export markets and, particularly after 1995, sharp decline in export price. Those changes were caused by factors such as government support policies, the price gap between Chinese vegetables and foreign vegetables, and competition in the domestic and international markets. In order to develop the export-oriented vegetable industry, it would be necessary to increase the export price of Chinese vegetable through the quality improvement and the reconstruction of distribution system.

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This paper outlines an investigation of the marketing of mandarins by small-scale mandarin shippers in the case of the Arida area, identifying specific problems of mandarin-producing areas. The paper outlines the conditions for their existence as follows. The first is an increase in consumer needs for special goods and segmentation for stocking mandarins by supermarkets. The second is to have in place some mechanisms to produce high-quality fruit. In the mandarin-producing area investigated in this paper, they have to construct a system through which they can adopt both large-scale marketing and marketing based on individuality in order to meet various consumer needs.

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This paper analyzes and summarizes the form, development and current status of Dalian's aquatic products industry, investigating as well as the status and the specific tasks inherent in supporting leading companies in the industrialization of agriculture. Based on this study, five opinions are proposedind about breed fisheries serving as leading companies in the industrialization of agriculture: 1. Emphasize environmental and resource protection; 2. Based on expanding exports, develop a native consumer market; 3. Build a corporate trade union; 4. Promote the corporate method of orders between the leading companies and peasant households; 5. Transfer government service functions as rapidly as possible.

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The aim of this paper is to consider the meanings and problems of "local food production and consumption" through an investigation of the introduction of bread made from local rice flour into school lunch in Sasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture. The main conclusions of this paper are summarized as follows. On one side, the bread made from local rice flour is safer for children than the wheat bread produced in a foreign country. Further, the introduction of rice flour bread into school lunch may promote the activation of local-economy and it is also effective in the education of diet for children. On another side, local administrations must better organize the system to support local foods with the respect to the "local food production and consumption" ideology and must continue to support this atitude over the long term. Such a system also requires cooperation between the consuming constituent and the agricultual cooperatives in order to get rice flour made at a competitive price in the home market.

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The aim of this paper is to clarify the significance of the restructuring of co-operative shipment organization through the choice of shipment by the farm households. The analysis case is the Eastern Mikawa Area, which is characterized by the practice of various shipments for farm households.The main conclusions are summarized as follows: The farm households select the final shipment based on each specific management situation. The agricultural co-operatives restructuring of co-operative shipment organization made it possible for all the members to participate in various shipping options. Accordingly, the restructuring of co-operative shipment organization has gotten high evaluation from the farm households. The restructuring of co-operative shipment organization for the vegetable producing area of the collection of cargo competition relation shows the effect of increasing the attractiveness of agricultural co-operatives shipments for the farm households.

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This paper analyzes young consumer's behavior and consciousness for konnyaku products. Data for this study is based on the results of a questionnaire which targeted college students. The findings are as follows: 1) Konnyaku dishes and consumption are dominantly concentrated in winter. 2) Young consumers prefer konnyaku's peculiar texture and tend to emphasize product price. 3) Compared with men, women have a stronger interest in its positive health effects.

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This paper discusses the relationship between the establishment of the wholesale market and the increases in vegetable shipments by specifically examining green peppers and cucumbers produced in Miyazaki Prefecture as an example. The secret of the competitiveness of the Miyazaki Civic Wholesale Market is their effort to make larger lots of vegetables by combining the small lots shipped by individual producers. This effort has created an advantage for individual producers of Miyazaki in that the individual workers' produce is purchased at higher prices than at other wholesale markets. This increase of individual producers' shipment has contributed to a large increase of the whole vegetable production in Miyazaki Prefecture.

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