Consumer concern about the safety of imported foods is increasing in Japan, the world's largest agricultural import country. In this study, Japanese consumer concerns toward residual agricultural chemical on Chinese agricultural products and the causal relationship of their behavior were captured in two econometric analyses. First, we identified by traditional regression analysis that the riskrelated information in the news media have had negative impacts on imports. Second, we showed clearly by using Structural Equation Modeling that consumer concerns about the process of agricultural production and inspection in China has specified their behavior. When related processor, wholesaler and retailer provided consumers with precise information about the safety of Chinese agricultural products, it was suggested that the import demand may recover even with the present price level. These results will be useful in the development of marketing information for imported agricultural products from other countries.

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In order to improve the quality and safety of agricultural products, “Three kinds of food” certification system; non-polluted food, green food and organic food has been founded by the Chinese government, and the full process of food production are under its control.
The concepts, developments and contents of certification system such as certification standard and inspection method, and the present situation of non-polluted food, green food and organic food are discussed in this paper.
Both Non-polluted food and green food focus on the management of elements which will have effect on the quality of the food, while organic food focuses on the management of elements which will have effect on the environment. The certification inspection of non-polluted food and green food stress on whether the value of production environment and product reach the certification standard or not, and whether the production materials are used correctly or not during the process of production, while organic food stress on on-the-spot inspection of the way and management during the whole process through production to trade. While, no public pollution food compares to green food, the certification standard of the former is less strict than the latter. It dues to Chinese present standard of agricultural production and the needs of consumers can be satisfied.
In recent years, with the esta blishment of “Three kinds of food” certification system, amount of certified non-polluted food, green food and organic food is increased, what is more, that leads to enhancement of the quality and safety of Chinese agricultural products.

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The notable trend of food marketing systems observed in Japan and other developed countries is that retailers have been getting the largest power within the marketing channel. Although there is no objection for the understanding, it is not necessarily clear what are the qualitative changes and meanings of retailer-led marketing systems.
After retailers have gained the position of channel captain within food marketing systems, the control and involvement by retailers has been gradually expanded into all the process of food supply chain. It exemplified the introduction of traceability systems and private brand product strategies.
The meanings of retailer-led supply chains are firstly the ability of gathering consumer information directly and without time lag, secondly the broad assortment decided from a viewpoint of high compatibility of consumer needs, and thirdly the improvement of logistics supply. However the retailer-led supply chains have some problems resulted from the characteristics of agricultural production. In order to establish value-added and sustainable food supply chains, it is essential for its organizations to pursue not only efficiency of being synchronised to real demand but also effectiveness of exploiting the innate advantages of agricultural production.

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The structural changes in the food system have brought about changes in the vertical relationship between economic entities, and required new analytic viewpoints and approaches. First of all, I discuss new roles of the economic entities and significance of cooperation between them, as well as the basic analytic viewpoints surrounding the supply chain and retailing industry-driven distribution system.
The supply chain was primarily adopted with the objective of streamlining of distribution and inventory control, but its goals and concepts have shifted to the optimization of the entire supply system and equal partnerships between the economic entities involved in it. Bypassing trading barriers between the economic entities and sharing managerial resources have enabled the entire supply chain to function efficiently, and their win-win relationship has further deepened by incorporating the value system into the supply chain. Secondly, I discuss PB (Private Brand) and analyze peculiarities of the distribution system of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, regarding the intermediate distribution, I take up representative economic entities in both wholesale market and off-market distribution as a case study in order to determine the possibilities of the supply chain. Finally, I discuss the marketing strategies which the production regions have adopted to take on the retailing industry-driven distribution system.

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This paper examines the forming conditions of a new Supply Chain from a viewpoint of rationality of economic individuals, through clarifying the changing mechanism of retail-led fresh seafood distribution system. Rational behavior of an economic individual is to plan for the advantage maximization, that is, most suitable value or a balance between the total sales revenue maximization and cost minimization. The costs could be defined as distribution cost, transaction cost, and management cost. It is necessary that the rationality of the economic individuals is achieved, to build a new Supply Chain of fresh seafood as an innovation in food system.

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This paper aims at verifying the current situation of seafood market distribution and actual condition of Supply Chain building in wholesale stage. That is, to clarify the background to Supply Chain building and economic individual's behavior and its merits and demerits, to examine the upcoming challenges and the future direction. Firstly, it examines the current situation of seafood market distribution. Over two times of the Wholesale Market Law revisions (1999, 2004) couldn't reach the radical reform of the wholesale market system. Secondly, it verifies that even though a wholesale market distribution system is needed from the feature of the seafood, but a management innovation in the wholesale market distribution is also necessary. Lastly, it examines the actual condition and features and upcoming challenges of the management innovation and SCM building in Sendai Suisan Co., Ltd. as a wholesaler in the central wholesale market.

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This paper aims to examine main food policy issues in Korea that have developed since Lee Myung-bak administration commenced last year. Policies concerning food security, food safety, promotion for food-processing industry, and food consumption and consumer nutrition are reviewed. The review is conducted with an emphasis on the emerging challenges, changes in law and institutional environments, development of new policy measures, and unresolved issues in the four policy domains. The paper concludes with a critical suggestion that setting up and operating a national system to integrate dispersed food polices and private experts is needed in near future, which helps to effectively achieve food security, food safety, and other policy objectives.

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In order to go into the metropolitan wholesale market in Korea and to realize reasonable prices, proper knowledge of the commodities and producers in the country is essential. That is particularly true in the case of agricultural products. While necessary information seems to be provided in the Garak wholesale market in Seoul, many wholesalers in local markets, even in larger scale, are facing difficulties and some wholesalers are going bankrupts. The paper suggests the acute need in the Garak wholesale market to achieve the development of brand value products and better lineup at proper volumes. Such kind of activities will enhance profitability of all stakeholders in the country and abroad.

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A review of the structural change of food products trade in East Asia was firstly carried out, especially focused on China, Japan and South Korea. Then the structural changes of food industry in China and its reason for the growth of food industry were analyzed. The results reveal that intra-regional food products trade in East Asia has expanded very quickly; the structure of China's food industry has polarized because the share of agriculture in food industry in China decreased while the share of food processing industry increased sharply; the growth of food industry is attributed to total factor productivity, fixed capital investment, and number of employees in turn; rapid enlargement of private capital investment makes a great contribution to the growth of food industry while foreign investment keeps propelling the specialization of its export field.

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