This study analyzes the current state of exports of agricultural products and processed foods by Japanese production areas, focusing on the case of lettuce and celery, identifying various related issues. The data are based on the results of fieldwork done among various sites located in Nagano prefecture, Japan. The findings can be summarized as follows. First, the export partner countries were concentrated in Asia, and while there are many food companies and trading companies operating, the agricultural exports of Japan are overall, small scale. After the 2011 earthquake and the associated nuclear accident, the agricultural exports of western Japan increased relative to those of the Kanto Koshinetsu region and Tohoku region.

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The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries encourages the export of Japanese agricultural, forestry, and fishery products, together with food produce. As part of its export promotion strategy, the Ministry aims to expand the export amount to a one trillion yen scale by 2020, focusing especially on Japanese processed food. However, there are few studies that have examined the actual situation of the processed food export from Japan. Among processed food having high international popularity now, such as soy sauce, private large-scale enterprises have stepped forward and exported abroad positively and steadily for a long time without policy support. Overseas development of the Japanese food industry is mainly promoted by such private large-scale enterprises, but this movement is also highly linked with the localization of production in overseas. On the other hand, recent overseas business activities by small and medium-sized enterprises are mainly exporting of Japanese processed food made in Japan. They maintain relationships with the Japanese domestic market and Japanese farmers. From the present analysis, we have identified four essential characteristics regarding the current stage of processed food exports from Japan: motivation of managers and workers, appropriate pricing and ensuring proper profits, indispensability of developing new products to adapt to local demand, changing relationships with domestic market and farmers by management strategies of food manufacturing.

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2016 The Agricultural Marketing Society of Japan

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