In this paper, I examine the changing international agro-food market in the 21st century and draw attention to the achievements/challenges of current agro-food market studies, based on the latest Volume 1 of the Agricultural Marketing Society of Japan series. Since the establishment of the WTO and China's accession to this organization, international agro-food markets have been globalized as follows: 1) quantitative/qualitative market change such as the pivotal role of the U.S. and China, the emergence of New Agricultural Countries (NACs), expanding vertical/horizontal cross-border division of labor, and increased international trade dependence; 2) increasing power for transnational agribusinesses with formulation of neoliberal trade regime/agricultural policy optimal for capital accumulation; 3) intensive/extensive market development not only in agricultural commodities but also in land and labor. From this world agricultural market perspective, new challenges are emerging: 1) further need for transforming expansive agricultural markets caused by industrialization of agro-food and metabolic disturbance, invisible/divided linkage between production and consumption, and primitive accumulation/expulsion based on agro-extractivism leading to massive creation of precarious migrants; 2) reflux of the world agro-food market due to worldwide recession, climate change, zoonotic disease, and political upheaval like the Ukraine shock, leading to food insecurity and cost of living crisis among lower and middle income groups across the globe; 3) alternative market governance and policy/movement actors at the local, national and global level, including resistance to agribusiness capital at the node of commodity chains, transforming neoliberal regimes based on food sovereignty and the U.N. Peasant Declaration, and practice of solidarity economy and people-centered public policy building for food democracy.

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Agricultural market research has explored how neoliberalization has changed agricultural policy and how such changes in agricultural policy have affected agricultural markets. This paper identifies the theoretical issues in agricultural market research through an analysis of the achievements of the neoliberal reform in agricultural policy in Japan. The study conceptualizes a “2000s-type agricultural policy”. Dairy policy since the 2000s has had two aspects: on the one hand, neoliberal policies such as WTO agricultural policy reform, mega-EPAs, and deregulation, and on the other hand, policies to mitigate various problems including those originating from neoliberal reforms. Neoliberal and non-neoliberal policies have become increasingly lame, weakening the effectiveness of each other's policies. Theoretical issues in agricultural market research related to agricultural policy include relativizing the development of Japan's agricultural policy through an international context, the nature of neoliberal reforms, and identifying alternatives to neoliberal agricultural policy.

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This paper clarifies the current state of the food and agricultural markets as well as remaining issues identified in agricultural marketing journals. There are two conclusions taken through examining the two volumes published to commemorate the 30th anniversary. First, it is important to continue research that responds to analysis of the present conditions of food and agricultural markets. In the future, along with a marketing perspective, a perspective reflecting both environmental conservation and sustainable initiatives will become important. Secondly, it is necessary to deepen research as well as expand the research area with a perspective that opposes capital.

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This paper provides a prospective development direction for agricultural market research in response to environmental change. In recent years, the development of causal inference and game theory in economics has spread to many fields of social science, including political science and business administration. Agricultural market research has accumulated studies centered on detailed case analyses, and in light of recent trends in the social sciences, where analytical methods have become increasingly sophisticated, we have considered where we stand in this field. To accomplish this, we first identified the recent progress in the social sciences as scientification. We then summarized the characteristics of sociology, which is considered non-scientific research. The direction of agricultural market research is then presented in terms of similarities and differences with sociology. The research concludes with specific discussion of the following three points: 1) agricultural structure analysis, 2) policy analysis, and 3) analysis of non-economic motivations for behavior.

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China has the largest number of geographical indication registered products. In China, this reality is expected to contribute to the solution of the Three Rural Issues by creating new regional specialties on the basis of geographical indications. Therefore, China's geographical indication registered products include not only traditional regional products but also those aiming for new regional specialties. In this paper, we examined the actual situation and issues of creating new regional special products by geographical indication, taking the case study of “Feicheng peach” in Shandong Province. For development of “Feicheng peach”, the integrated projects included the development and dissemination of cultivation technology, the establishment of a quality control system, and the formation of a shipping organization, and so on. The registration of geographical indication is also part of this. The effect of geographical indication registration in the integrated projects is firstly the improvement of local brand. The second is to promote the organization of farmers by achieving high prices.

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