During the 1960's and 70's, the rapid growth of the Japanese economy transformed the national life style. At the same time, government policies led to changes in the Japanese diet. These policies - increases in food importation, modernization of food production and distribution, government assistance to the food industry, etc. - promoted changes in the systems of providing food. Through these changes, the modernization of, the Japanese diet has .been achieved. While the Japanese diet of today has many favorable aspects, our analysis.reveals certain conditions which are growing worse. For example, differences in consumer purchasing power result in differences in food consumption which in turn leads to cases of malnutrition and excessive consumption existing side-by-side. Also, many consumers complain about expensive, unsavory, and contaminated foods. Thus, the reorganization of the food supply systems has not only failed to attain its objectives, but hag produced new problems as well.

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In the 1980's, supermarkets arid food service industry companies made great progress, becoming leading channels of food distribution. This paper presents a statistical analysis and a case study of large-scale supermarkets and food service industry companies in order to analyze their marketing characteristics and current trends in perishable food distribution. The results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) Supermarkets and food service industry companies have been selecting vendors in view of efficiency. (2) Main vendors selected by supermarkets and food service industry companies are not producers and agricultural cooperatives but wholesale dealers. Advanced supermarkets with well equipped facilities for distribution and processing tend to lay in stock from large-scale producers directly. In any case, they attach much importance to procuring large quantities and maintaining the stability of both quantity and quality. (3) Although computer-based, point-of-sale systems have been introduced in a lage proportion of supermarkets and food serviceindustry companies, they have not had much effect on their stocking of perishable foods. It can be concluded that at present, supermarkets and food service industry companies base their marketing strategy on mass selling and mass stocking, therefore, they still maintain economy of mass consumption.

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It is important that perishable goods reach the consumer in as fresh a condition as possible. To achieve this goal, highly advanced physical distribution techniques and information systems are necessary. However, certain conditions prevent maximum effective use of these methods in the distribution of agricultural products. This paper presents some examples of these highly advanced methods, and also shows possible ways of making them available for fresh food distribution. In conclusion, the agricultural cooperatives are expected to take the initiative in implementing these methods and, if they follow these recommendations, the benefits would belong to the farmers.

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The actions producers and agricultural cooperatives (mainly in Iwate Prefecture) are taking in order to deal with changes in the agricultural market were examined. (1) In rice production, a few producers and agricultural cooperatives are responding to the health concerns of today's consumers by striving to produce a better quality rice. (2) With the opening of the beef market to imports, beef producers prefer to breed Japanese Black Cattle due to the superior taste of its beef. This high quality taste has enabled the price of these cattle to hold steady at high level. Meanwhile, the prices being paid for Japanese Shorthorn Cattle and for dairy cattle are falling. Producers breeding these cattle are trying to promote sales directly to consumers' groups, which then pay the producers a price exceeding the general market price. (3) Recently, vegetable production in Iwate Prefecture has been increasing. Iwate's climate is comparatively cool ; therefore, producers can raise vegetables using fewer chemicals. In addition, the labor market is relatively underdeveloped, ensuring the availability of an adequate supply of labor for these family-run oparations.

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[in Japanese]

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The shortage of feed grain stocks in the U. S. was brought about by inventories clearance that occurred in 1989. The food situation in the world is changing and the primacy of the U. S. in the world feed grains markets is going down, the U. S. government maintains its domestic production through protective policy measures, however, in order to reduce the massive U. S. government deficit, the U. S. must adjust its agricultural policy. The paper described how the agricultural policies of the U. S. changed the feed grain market System.

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