This report is aimed at revealing the details of and the factors for the impacts of the nuclear accident on major agricultural produce such as vegetables from Fukushima Prefecture by analyzing the relationship between wholesale quantity and price, and comparing it before (average of 2007-2010) and after (2011 and thereafter) the disaster. Insights are drawn from a combination of wholesale market data sets provided by Agriculture & Livestock Industries Corporation (ALIC) and survey interviews with key informants such as wholesalers at Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, JA Zen-Noh (National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations) Fukushima, Utsukushi-Fukushima Agricultural Corporations Association, and Agricultural Council in Fukushima Prefecture, as well as leading supermarket chains. First, at Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market (Tokyo Market) and Osaka Central Wholesale Market (Osaka Market), normal relations between quantity and price have not been observed since the earthquake, which is particularly so in Tokyo Market, indicating the emergence of structural changes. Second, three major trends deserve attention in Tokyo Market, which is the largest buyer of Fukushima crops: (i) On the whole, both sales quantities and unit prices have been declining since the earthquake. Moreover, the trend has worsened in 2012 compared with 2011. (ii) On the other hand, some commodities remained unaffected in 2011. (iii) Unit prices of some commodities were on rebounding trends from 2011 to 2012. Third, the aforementioned three trends are underlain by multiple factors rather than single factors. Although the normal quantity-price relation holds true in regard to the essential goods that faced a supply shortage from other domestic sites in the peak season, for other goods there are cases in which producers lost their bargaining power over price in the context of compensation in place by TEPCO for nuclear damage, thereby inducing trend (i). In light of the uncertainty over the duration of TEPCO's compensation, it will be necessary to formulate and implement specific plans on regaining supply capacity and bargaining power in order for producers to sustain themselves whenever the compensation program terminates.

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The nuclear power plant accident resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake caused radioactive material pollution in fresh food. This issue has become a social problem. This article analyzes the need for testing by public administrators to investigate the presence of radioactive materials in food, especially fresh food offered for sale by various food retailers. In addition, this article compares the results of this test with the basic opinions and policies of each food retailer. Food retailers' methods of coping differ greatly. Many companies did in fact voluntarily test their purchased commodities for radioactive materials. Nevertheless, a program of public inspection would certainly provide consumers with additional confidence. This is especially required because consumer co-operatives face difficulties while dealing with radioactive material pollution. Because consumer co-operatives comprise a different type of consumers, and because many arable farmers, livestock farmers, and fishermen have joined consumer co-operatives in the Tohoku area, consumer co-operatives speculate about diminished sales in the event of conducting voluntary pollution tests on regional farmers' produce, milk, and fish. This dilemma is further complicated by the inadequate proof that voluntarily conducting such tests will in fact result in an increase in sales. However, without a sampling program, it will remain difficult to confirm food safety. Given the critical nature of a safe food supply, it is necessary to examine the issue of radioactive material pollution more closely.

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On March 11, 2011, the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake wreaked havoc across northeastern Japan. The disaster caused a serious nuclear accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, which led to radiation leakage across northern and eastern Japan. Concerns over the radioactive contamination of food have grown among consumers since the accident. The Japanese government has issued certain legal guidelines for withdrawing food from markets. However, the demand for agricultural products from Fukushima Prefecture and neighboring areas decreased because of contamination concerns. In this paper, the research estimated consumer WTA of spinach from Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures using the data collected by internet surveys conducted from March 2011 to February 2012 of married women living in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. In the estimate this research divided the WTA into two parts: 1) health risk evaluation, the evaluation of products based on health risk from radioactive contamination, and 2) origin evaluation, based on the origin of products without contamination. The main results are as follows: (1) Consumer evaluations were different between the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. The health risk evaluation was similar in both areas; however, the origin evaluation was different between the areas. (2) Level of contamination-WTA curves should be concave and the effect of the change of level of contamination diminishes gradually. The results indicate that consumers' evasion toward agricultural food with fear of contamination is still strong and sticky.

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The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident brought about extensive diffusion of radioactive materials. Although the contamination by the radioactive material of food has been suppressed to a low level, since the radioactive material is a hazard which had not been faced until now, consumers are worried and confused. The scientific information about the radioactive material in food was summarized as a slide show, and how consumers' behavior would change with these slide shows was analyzed. The cucumber was chosen as the representative of agricultural products for the consumers who live in Fukushima Prefecture, the metropolitan area, and the Kansai region, and the research was done by the Internet. The agricultural products from Fukushima are avoided by consumers and the slide show was changing consumers' preference. Although this paper shows the validity of scientific information dissemination, the fact that consumers' evaluation to a slide show was divided shows the difficulty of such communication about a radioactive material. It will be effective to offer objective data to the consumers whose anxiety grade is comparatively small.

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This study reviews the trend in research by focusing on papers presented at the 28 th IAAE, International Association of Agricultural Economists, a conference held in Brazil in 2012, in comparison with those presented at previous IAAE conferences. The IAAE conference is the largest among international meetings for agricultural economists; thus, reviewing papers at this conference is useful to grasp the current research trends in agricultural economics worldwide. The study has also considered the significance of the IAAE Brazilian conference in terms of the international contribution by Japanese agricultural economists because, for the first time, a Japanese economist has served as the president of IAAE and presided over this conference. The review revealed the following points. First, the number of poster presentations increased from previous conferences, indicating the stimulation of participation by young researchers. Second, the number of sessions of oral presentation increased in the fields of development economics and resource/environmental economics. These two fields accounted for about a half of the total number of oral sessions. Market-related topics also increased to attain nearly a 20%share of the oral presentations. There was an expansion of topics, especially in the arena of resource/environmental economics. In conclusion, it is safe to say that agricultural economics is widening its field toward the economics of rural resource management from the field of traditional production-oriented economics.

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