The working conditions of the unskilled labor force in Japan are becoming increasingly unstable, resulting in employment deterioration; this is also true for urban areas. This study generated profiles of unskilled urban labor forces temporarily employed in the agricultural sector as follows. First, our statistical analysis showed that the wage gap between urban and rural areas has been shrinking since the 1970s, and the wage standard of urban unskilled laborers has fallen since the 2000s. Second, based on a case study of a sugar mill factory in a remote area of Okinawa Prefecture, we found that the unskilled laborers were involved in a series of unstable and temporary jobs, but those in the agricultural market could sometimes be under better terms than those in urban areas. Third, the fact that such workers are single and earn wages based solely on labor power makes it easy for them to enter into and adapt to the agricultural labor market.

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Recently, two Japanese trading companies began export of small size apples targeting middle-income consumers in Southeast Asia and East Asia. In these businesses, they sell small size apples at the 130-200-yen price point. This business approach presents a new challenge to create new demand for Japanese apples. This paper reveals the adaptation efforts to the local environment necessary for such businesses, capturing the requirements for success and outlining the implications for similar projects. As a result, this paper identifies development of product and pricing policies based on in-depth local surveys, promotion policies tailored to the local environment, and independently developed channel policies as the most important areas of adaptation. Moreover, this paper reveals the need high quality of intangible assets, such as human capital and network, for conducting positive product promotion and delivery and sales channel development policies. The implications identified in the research reveal that the company's efforts to secure profits through aggressive promotion policies can be the reference for other companies, and the acquisition of intangible assets will be a bottleneck for similar businesses.

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This study identifies the significance of web system centered matching in the agricultural labor market through the examination of the operational status of “1 day agricultural part-time daywork, ” whose use is expanding mainly in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido. Previous research pointed to a trend towards permanent employment, but there is still demand for temporary employment at production sites. Discussions have been held on regional coordination, coordinating bodies, and employment terms. This paper elucidates labor procurement through this system. Survey results indicate that the introduction of the system has significantly reduced the labor of agricultural cooperative staff and facilitated the connection between supply and demand. Agricultural cooperatives were not directly involved in the connection of supply and demand but were involved in creating posters and supporting the use of the system. As a web system centered matching, daywork is a mechanism that facilitates the connection between supply and demand, but as an administrator on the system, the agricultural cooperative constantly checks the status of recruitment and application and the exchanges between recruiters and job seekers, and contacts the recruiters as necessary.

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The Wholesale Market Law was drastically revised in 2018 and came into effect in June 2020. As a result, the article restricting free competition between wholesalers and middlemen was abolished, and the main trading rules are now left to the discretion of each wholesale market, as established by the operators in their bylaws. This paper clarifies the response of central wholesale market operators to the changes in trading rules, etc., resulting from the revision of the Wholesale Market Law, and the resulting changes in transactions. Many local governments have generally abolished or completely abolished provisions related to major trading rules. The system percentages are higher for separation of sales and logistics, directly collection, and wholesale for buyers, in that order. Such deregulation has led to an increase in wholesale for buyers and directly collection.

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In recent years, there has been a shortage of short-term employment labor in agriculture. As short-term employment labor is not able to make a living from such agricultural work-based income, people with unstable employment outside agriculture have been hired as short-term employment labors. This has led to the shortages in short-term agricultural labor supply. For this reason, it is necessary to focus on University Student Farm-support Volunteers as human resources that can be supplied for reasons other than income. In order to increase the number of university students who participate in Farm-support Volunteers activities, it is necessary to establish conditions and systems for accepting university students. In order to clarify the various conditions necessary to promote the participation of university students in such volunteerism, this paper outlines analysis of the factors for volunteer participation from the existing studies, including case studies of acceptance conditions, while also reporting on a questionnaire survey on the target cases. The following three system conditions were identified. First is acceptance conditions that correspond to the strong motivation of university students to participate in volunteer activities. Second is well-balanced incentives for student volunteers by combining psychological rewards, monetary rewards, and the type of activity desired by the host farmer. Third is a volunteer work environment that matches and responds to the unique characteristics of university students.

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Recent studies have identified the negative effects of childhood economic deprivation on economic status in adulthood. However, to our knowledge, the effects of childhood economic conditions and mealtime environment on food consciousness in adulthood are not discussed in detail. Therefore, this study aimed to quantitatively clarify the effects of household economic conditions and mealtime environment during childhood on food consciousness in adulthood. It used individual data from a nationwide online survey conducted in January 2022. Among 2,000 samples, the study used the 1,981 that responded to all the questions required for data analysis. The results of categorical structural equation modelling revealed the following: 1) economic conditions, mealtime environment, and shock experience in childhood affected food consciousness in adulthood. These childhood influences were less significant than those of socioeconomic status in adulthood, but greater than those of gender and household characteristics (i.e., single-person households). 2) The degree of the effects of childhood economic conditions and mealtime environment on food attitudes in adulthood were similarly significant. Therefore, it is suggested that not only the alleviation of economic deprivation but also the improvement of the mealtime environment at home in childhood may contribute to the improvement of food consciousness in adulthood.

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