Taking the development of organic agriculture in Japan, the USA and European countries into consideration, I focused on the marketing system of organic agricultural products of today and its problems, mainly on labelling and standards. Most of the standards in Japan are being influenced by market-oriented traders, producers and local governments. Theses standards aim at the distinction of products just after the amount of chemical use like pesticides. Furthermore, compared to those of the USA and European countries, the Japanese standards and even the guidelines made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have serious problems; they have definitions too ambigous in the whole. To adapt to the widespread market of organic agricultural products, the USA and European countries introduced a legislation of unified standards on the US and EC levels. In the process of the unification, it harmonized the level of standards but this brought new problems; the failure of the principle of organic agriculture and the relaxation of regulation for chemical use against diseases and insects. While production and supply of organic agricultural products have increased and the relationship between producers and consumers become more indirect in the expanding and borderless market, the premium of organic agricultural products is set lower than before and fake products are brought to the market. It is a common issue in Japan and the western countries how to create an appropriate distribution system to promote and expand organic agriculture. From this viewpoint, a community supported agriculture (CSA), a distribution system very similar to the "teikei" system in Japan, has come to call attention now. There are also various kinds of ways and challenges for "alternative marketing" as local market, farmers market, direct purchase and others. It indicates the future direction to the marketing system of organic agricultural products.

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The purposes of this paper was to make clear problems of the organic agricultural products' distribution and to propose the courses in the future. The result of this study was as follows: (1) Direct marketing was the best system of distribution for recognizing the value in use and for realizing the value of the organic agriculture products. But direct marketing had weak points because it was difficult to balance demand with supply. The farmers' groups of organic products had seeded for multiple destinations and shipped to the open market as a wholesale market. (2) With the development of direct marketing it increased the fixed debt and expenses for hired laborers. But once those problems were solved, direct marketing promoted the development of regional agriculture. (3) The wholesale markets plays a supplementary role in marketing organic products at present. (4) It is a requirement for spreading the wholesale' distribution of organic products to inspect the goods and to make up severe certification of organic products.

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This study examines several problems about the land use and the landownership in Japanese Agriculture in order to clarify the characteristics of the "Basic Direction of New Policies for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas". The conclusion of this study is summarized as follows: (1) The "Basic Direction of New Policies for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas" is a restructuring policy in terms of the capitalistic use of national land. (2) The restructuring policy to the agricultural structure in the "Basic Direction of New Policies for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas" is unrealistic because it does not concern the liquidization of farmland and the differentiation of peasantry. (3) The agricultural production corporation system may become a means to the capitalistic control over agriculture and the farmland. (4) The restructuring of Japanese agriculture needs to be based on family farm.

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the characteristics and methods of wholesale pricing for portion cuts, through the new estimates of cut-out value (estimated composite of boxed meat cut-out value) for beef and pork. A greater emphasis is placed on the relationship between meat prices being paid to wholesalers and carcass value in the market place. Major conclusions are as follows. (1) Results of OLS regressions of monthly prices between boxed meat on full-set basis and carcass satisfy the parameters' condition except Wagyu beef. These results suggest that formula-priced transactions between the buyers and the sellers are almost conducted. (2) Results of parameter estimates of wholesale pricing for portion cuts almost coincide our hypothesis that demands conditions as well as carcass value are equivalently important. These results suggest that each cut price fluctuates in accordance with the seasonal and secular changes of demand, therefore negotiations between the buyers and the sellers are carried out in every time. (3) Equality condition between full-set price and estimated composite of boxed meat cut-out value is not satisfied only for dairy beef. This finding shows that the market clearance can not be realized for dairy beef because of the oversupply of this class due to the trade liberalization.

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