Recently the importance of credence attribute of food is increasing in the process of consumer choice. This kind of credence attribute often affiliate with public goods, for example, environment, animal welfare, suitability, fear trade, support for local famers and so on. A lot of literatures investigated about consumers' preference for affiliated public good attributes. In this paper, we reviewed those empirical literatures and categorized them into 5 groups by the types of attributes discussed in them. Then we estimated demand functions of eco-friendly rice to investigate the effect of consumer's altruism or awareness to public goods. Additionally we tried to estimate payment by consumers for environmental conservation through daily purchase of eco-friendly rice based on their altruism.

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This paper try to theoretically bring out the problems occurred when food safety signals, which are used safety standard or certification, are incompletely transmitted to buyers. Theoretical analysis of transaction game model without restriction for rational belief can explain following situations. Firstly, consumer attitude of untrustworthiness of food safety has a certain amount of rationality. Secondly, after strengthening of food sanitary inspection at upper stream of food distribution channel, the information of inspection results mislead harmful rumor. Thirdly, q excessively high or low belief of normal food spoils the effect of introducing food safety certification. Results indicate that food safety standard or certification needs proper belief control in applicable methods.

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As Japanese domestic food market shrinks, it becomes more important for food and agricultural sectors in Japan to acquire foreign market, especially in East Asia. If Japanese food export expands, Japanese food trade will become bilateral, which is intra-industry trade. In this paper, the structure of the food trade in East Asia is analyzed from the viewpoint of intra-industry trade. The Grubel-Lloyd index of the trade flows of 12 countries / regions are calculated and the factors affecting the level of the index are investigated with tobit regression models. Brülhart's A index is also calculated in order to analyze the changes in the intra-industry trade. It is considered that as the differences in income per capita among countries / regions get smaller, the intra-industry trade in East Asia will be promoted.

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Japan imports an overwhelming amount of food items from China, accounting for nearly a half of what is imported from whole East Asia. China, however, has begun to drastically reduce its export to Japan during the 2000s. This marked change in trade environment may have somehow affected the food development import scheme that has been led by Japan. In this context, this paper aims to explore the subject by choosing a case of frozen vegetable, a representative item in development import, and studying the corporate actions with respect to safety management measures implemented in transactions between a major Chinese frozen vegetable manufacturer and an equally major Japanese frozen vegetable development importer.
The case study reports that (i) since around 2010, the safety measures that the Japanese importer independently requests have been neglected whereas a system comprising multiple problems has instead been adopted and that (ii) notwithstanding, the Japanese corporation cannot help but accept such a system and purchase the products. In other words, contrary to the conventional bilateral relation, the leadership on the part of Japan has been undermined.
In light of the circumstance described above, this paper indicates that the Japan-China bilateral practice of food development import has now come to a turning point, as well as points out some future challenges to be addressed in this research domain.

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In this article we focus on the “network formation” to clarify the features and functions of the food industry cluster. Firstly, three principal contentions about the network structure of the food industry cluster were extracted, by comprehensively reviewing the results of previous domestic and foreign studies. They are as follow: i) a characteristic network structure of the food industry compared to other industries, ii) the uniqueness of the mechanism of knowledge flow, and iii) consolidation of cluster strategy and rural regional development. With respect to the second issue, we have tried to clarify the structural characteristics of the network of confectionery industry in Hokkaido through the use of social network analysis (SNA) and to evaluate their functions from the viewpoint of social capital. As a result, the following was found, the confectionery materials wholesale are expected to play the role of a “gatekeeper” who bridges the structural holes between local and supra-regional networks.

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In Japan, interest in local brands of agricultural products as a means of rural development is raising rapidly. If the brand fulfills to have the premium price and avoid price competition that brand to contribute to the stabilizing and increasing of farmer's income. In addition, if it is possible to have a strong local brand, diversification and the entry of companies aimed at the brand extension, which brought the industrial activity of the rural areas can also be expected. However, simply having a brand element, in order that it is not possible to get the brand effects, appropriate management and brand strategy will be required. Therefore, in this paper, along with the actual situation of the regional brand strategy of agricultural products, several issues related to brand management been cleared.
First, brand strategy is restricted by the image and awareness of the locality because the local brand of agricultural products is hard to achieve differentiation in quality.
Secondly, with regard to brand equity measurement, brand value based on cost-benefit analysis is not certificated sufficiently compared to the interest in brand power in marketing.
Thirdly, the willingness to brand extension by the entry of companies and diversification had not been examined, thus management of the right to use the brand is focused on control for the protection of the identity of the brand.

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Farmer cooperatives have developed rapidly in China since the enactment of the Law on Professional Farmers Cooperatives in 2007. The farmer cooperative is organized in a manner that emphasizes the vertical relationship of buyers and suppliers of agricultural products, unlike the horizontal relationship among farmer cooperatives in Japan. This article tries to explain the organizational design of farmer cooperatives in China within the framework of economics of organization using the game theory. This design is characterized as follows. (1) Buyer procures agricultural products not only from the cooperative's members but also directly from the managed farms. (2) The benefit of procuring produce from cooperative members indicates not only a horizontal relationship among farmers, but also a vertical relationship between farmers and buyers. (3) Farmers never behave opportunistically, even though such behavior can earn them rewards. Characteristic (1) implies that the directly managed farm can be understood as the transfer of farmers' capabilities to the cooperative. If the farmer uses his own capability more effectively than when in a cooperative, then the cooperative can decide to procure produce from its other members, and vice versa if the opposite is true. Characteristic (2) indicates that farmers in cooperatives are disincentivized against using inputs lower as they can bargain over the transaction conditions with the buyer. However, if the buyer does not always deal with the best farmer partner, he will shift his attention to the second-best deal, and the farmer will thus have the incentive to input lower. According to characteristic (3), however, farmers curb the opportunity to reduce inputs, because buyers cooperatively resort to the trigger strategy of the game theory. Thus, China's farmer cooperatives must organize vertical relationships amongst themselves in order to reap the advantages of the abovementioned merits of vertical organizational design.

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