In the 2024 revision of the Basic Act on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas, food security is defined as “a state in which quality food is stably supplied at reasonable prices and accessible to every citizen,” and its assurance is set as a key policy goal. This symposium is designed to open a shared discussion on how such access can be ensured for every individual in today’s changing society—a topic that has not yet been widely explored within our field. The first presentation focuses on urban areas, the second on rural and mountainous regions, both illustrating where and how the situational norm of food security remains unmet. The third presentation examines the retail and service sectors that directly connect people to food, presenting a framework for understanding their evolving social functions. Through these three reports and subsequent commentary, the symposium aims to foster collective reflection on the roles of industries and policies in delivering food to people, and to invite participants to consider new directions for regional agriculture and forestry research.

This presentation examines access to food access in urban areas of Japan. First, drawing on the capability approach, it clarifies the conceptual similarities and differences between food security, food capability, and food access, and argues that the prevailing understandings of food access risk are underestimating multiple inequalities in everyday dietary practices, including economic, social and gender disparities. It then focuses on urban single mothers, who are often described as almost the half population living in relative poverty, and offers a detailed analysis of their actual dietary practices and constraints. On this basis, the presentation discusses what forms of food policy are required to enhance food capabilities and to address the structural disadvantages embedded in current urban food environments.

In Japan, problems related to access to groceries have been becoming increasingly severe. In particular, in hilly and mountainous regions, the number of stores selling groceries and daily necessities is extremely limited, and continued population decline has led to further store closures and withdrawals, resulting in a highly constrained shopping environment. Against this background, this study examines the current state of the shopping environment and residents’ perceptions in a hilly and mountainous region, focusing on Okuizumo Town in Shimane Prefecture. The results reaffirm that municipal efforts to improve the shopping environment constitute an essential living infrastructure that influences residents’ decisions to continue living in the area as well as their residential location choices. At the same time, the study reveals that a certain proportion of residents experience inconvenience and anxiety about the future due to the decline of nearby stores and the limited range of shopping options available.

This study examined the novel store strategies adopted by Japanese food retailers as social infrastructure in food desert areas. As Japan’s food retail market has been shrinking, food retailers are revising traditional chain store operations, seeking new store strategies. Two retailers, a convenience store chain and a consumer cooperative, were selected as case studies. They had significantly improved accessibility constraints for their consumers. Regarding availability, the convenience store adapted its assortment to meet local consumers’ needs and wants, and the co-op’s mobile retailing format strove to optimize itself through face-to-face communication with customers. Both retail formats succeeded in gaining customer support, resulting in sales above the break-even point and business continuity. Noteworthy is the fact that collaboration between various entities created retail innovation, and that they were trying to pursue a community-based approach for local sustainability.

The 2025 ARAFE International Symposium, held on November 2, 2025, at Shimane University and online via Zoom Webinar, commenced with a welcome address by Kazuki Taketoshi, President of ARAFE. Taketoshi emphasized the timeliness of the symposium’s theme, noting that Japan’s 2024 re-opening of rice futures markets and the subsequent 2025 rice price crisis had brought questions of financialization into sharp public focus. He expressed hope that the symposium would contribute to both academic understanding and practical policy responses. In my opening remarks as chair, I situated the symposium within a broader historical arc, observing that Japan pioneered one of the world’s first formalized agricultural futures markets with the Dojima Rice Exchange in eighteenth-century Osaka. Yet despite this deep history, contemporary financialization in Japan’s food sector has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. The symposium aimed to address this gap by bringing together international and Japanese scholars to critically engage with the evolving landscape of food system financialization. Nina Takashino (Ritsumeikan University), Keeni Minakshi (Tohoku University), and Motoi Kusadokoro (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) served as moderators throughout the proceedings.

In recent years, prices of meat have increased rapidly in some regions, even as the prices paid to livestock producers have decreased. This has led to record profits for many of the world’s largest meat processors, due to their strategic position between more diffuse producers and consumers. If price fixing is technically illegal, how have firms been able to coordinate their actions effectively? One way to put industry interests ahead of individual firm interests is to structure better conditions for higher prices. This may include, (1) the use of data sharing firms to exchange what is typically confidential business information, (2) increasing common ownership by asset management firms, and (3) “gin rummy” deals—swapping divisions among the largest firms. Directions of movement that would better protect consumers, producers and workers face significant obstacles in the near term but are more likely to be achieved in the long term.

We examine Japanese ties to global agribusiness powerhouses in nine sectors: cattle, chemicals, tractors and equipment, hogs, fertilizer, grains, poultry, turkey, tractors and equipment and seeds. We move from the frontstage of these agribusinesses into their backstage of connected leaders and private firms acting across the globe. We provide an interactive link for interested readers to see the ways in which Japanese entities network into these global agribusinesses.

Since 2024, rice prices have increased, raising public concerns regarding the affordability of staple foods and making food-related financial transactions a key issue. Japan has maintained strict oversight of its rice market since 1939. Before the post-1939 period, Japan actively and financially engaged in rice trading in thriving markets. These historical experiences offer important insights into current rice price policies. The various intrinsic factors that have historically influenced these markets must be recognized. This study focuses on colonial rice imports as a notable example. Major Japanese cities hosted rice exchanges that set index prices for the spot market. While these exchanges only traded domestic rice, major cities relied heavily on colonial rice supplies, and fluctuations in colonial rice prices would significantly affect domestic prices. Rice prices in Taiwan and Korea had different effects on domestic markets because their harvest seasons differed. Although the Japanese rice market generally served its function, it was sensitive to factors that affected the quantity and quality of rice distributed, leading to instability. Therefore, further historical studies are required to identify the factors that caused the instability of the rice market during this period.

Despite economic growth, child labor persists in the agricultural sector. The wealth paradox—whereby increased land size leads to an increase in child labor—remains underexplored in the Vietnamese context. This study investigates this paradox in Dak Lak province, Vietnam, using data from the Thailand Vietnam Socio-Economic Panel. We examine the nonlinear relationship between cultivated land area and child farm labor, specifically analyzing how children’s age moderates this effect. We use a probit model to estimate the probability that children (aged 5–17 years) engage in household agricultural work as their primary occupation. We find a significant inverted-U-shaped relationship between land wealth and child labor, which supports the wealth paradox hypothesis. This effect is significantly stronger for children aged 16 years and above than for those aged 15 years and under. The probability of child labor peaks at land sizes of 3.4–3.6ha, which is substantially above the sample average, implying that future scale expansion could inadvertently increase child labor. Therefore, policies encouraging farm expansion should be complemented by interventions that reduce incentives for child labor, especially among younger children. We find no significant evidence that improved proximity to schools reduces this probability.