This study, a case study of four large-scale agricultural cooperatives operating within F&V sector in Almería Prefecture, had been carried out to reveal the paths of European agricultural cooperatives. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : first, agricultural cooperatives tend to convert from bargaining cooperatives to marketing cooperatives with organizational reform in facing changes in the business environment such as increases in large-scale retailers’ demand and fierce competition over exports. Secondly, they prefer to choose federated cooperatives as a measure of horizontal integration rather than mergers that require transfer of ownership rights in the organizational reform. Thirdly, since the result of horizontal integration specifies the volume and range of products, it will have an impact to the fundamental conditions for marketing directly. Fourth, they are going to constrain the members’ autonomy and strengthen their managers’ power in carrying out direct salse with large-scale retailers. Finally, even if the above trends are in play, organizational reforms in European agricultural cooperatives are likely to spread in diverse directions instead of converge into single way under multi-options for organizational form, governance and networks.

This study reviews the background of The Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas formulation,the aim of the new basic law, and the agricultural policy for 20 years, and introduces the research results of the main policies of The Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PRIMAFF). The new basic law treats food, agriculture and rural areas as an integral unit, and makes concrete programs for measures deployment as a basic plan. It is very significant that a mechanism to execute measures deployment flexibly according to the situation of economy and society was constructed by the basic plan. It was revealed that such as the progress of production in response to the externalization of food, concentration of measures to business farmers, farming income stabilization measures, and direct payment to farmers in hilly and mountainous areas are steadily achieving an effect. On the other hand, it is hard to say that the food self-sufficiency ratio has improved. It is especially necessary to deepen the discussion on the positioning of the self-sufficiency ratio on a calorie supply basis in the future basic plan.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect critically on the development of rural policy after the Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas established in 1999 (abbreviated as the New Basic Law hereafter) and propose issues through this work. Firstly the position of rural policy in the policy system of the New Basic Law was examined, focusing on the relationship among the four principles : "Securing a stable supply of food", "Ensuring sufficient multi-functions", "Sustainable development of agriculture" and "Rural promotion". Conflicts and tensions between "Ensuring sufficient multi-functions" and "Rural promotion", structural policies to realize desirable farm structure for "Sustainable development of agriculture" and "Rural promotion" have become clear. Secondly how the policy window opened and how the direct payment system in hilly and mountainous areas was realized were clarified by means of tracing and organizing the development of rural policy up to the New Basic Law. Rural policy entered a new stage with the establishment of this direct payment system. The policy has been inclined to the conservation and management of local resources while taking on the character of community policy. Thirdly the characteristics of rural policy in Japan were confirmed by the use of rural community, discussing the significance and issues of the direct payment system in hilly and mountainous areas and the multi-functional payment system. The former direct payment system is better than the latter. The problem of the rural policy is that the primary priority is not placed on self-sustaining endogenous development but on local resource management. Fourthly the uniqueness and context of the policy were identified by organizing the formation process and characteristics of rural policy in Europe and the UK while incorporating the viewpoint of fiscal constraints, which made it clear that the exercise of discretion based on decentralization was important. Finally taking into account the policy actors, such as local governments and communities, we looked at the ideal form of rural policy in the future. The goal should create a fund that brings out the independence of the local community, but the immediate issues are to support an increase in the indigenousness of the local community and to establish an organization to receive various grants such as the direct payment in hilly and mountainous areas and the multi-functional payment.

At the time of enactment of the new basic law, environmental issues were attracting attention worldwide. The Basic Environment Act was enacted in Japan the year after the 1992 Earth Summit. The promotion of such environmental policies has encouraged consumers to participate in the debate over the multifaceted functions of agriculture. On the other hand, food safety problems have also occurred frequently due to externalization of food. The keywords of these twenty years are environmental and safety issues.

It might be necessary to take domestic countermeasures in agriculture policy because significant changes in trade rules due to international negotiations may have a significant impact on domestic agriculture. Changes in the external environment and corresponding agriculture policies have been discussed for over 20 years since the basic law on food, agriculture and rural areas was enacted. Japan’s agricultural policy and the EU’s agricultural policy are herein compared to obtain suggestions on agricultural policy in Japan. Looking ahead to the next 20 years, the way of conducting international negotiations and the prospects for corresponding policy will differ greatly, depending on how we forecast the outcome of the WTO negotiations. Assuming that the WTO negotiations are going forward, it will be necessary to shift to agriculture policy that complies with criteria set out in the green box and aim at going beyond the level of existing EPA/FTA concessions. In the case where it is assumed that the WTO negotiations will not proceed, EPAs/FTAs such as RCEP and TAG may advance further. With regard to how to proceed with international negotiations in the future, considering the responsibility of a country such as Japan, establishing Japan’s food security is the most important in order to stably supply food to Japanese citizens. Policies of the EU emphasizing the role of agriculture as a public good and focusing on the environment also have to be considered to arm the theory of food security in Japan. As a result of international negotiations, it is of utmost importance for Japanese citizens to raise the concern about domestic countermeasures in agriculture policy and to accept a result or not. In particular, it will be necessary to take measures to ensure that important agriculture products will be reproduced.

From 1960 to 2015, compared with other countries, the rates of the annual increase of Japanese rice, wheat, barley and soybean yields were low. Especially after 2000, the yield level of barley and soybean has declined. Stagnation of land productivity for these crops is a serious problem in Japanese paddy farming. Farmers’ behaviors which secure the quality more than quantity of crop production suppressed the increase of crop yield level. Moisture damage to upland crops impeded the growth rate. In addition, long-term land conversion between paddy and upland reduced the fertility of soil in paddy fields, and it caused the reduction of yield for soybean production. These factors were already pointed out before 2000, but drastic measures weren’t tackled. On the other hand, Japanese society is now facing a decline in the birthrate and an aging population, and the amount of agricultural labor will decrease more drastically in the future. Therefore, the rapid and large expansion of core farmers’ farmland is forecasted. In these circumstances, new farming technologies which utilize Information and Communication Technology, Robot Technology and Artificial Intelligence, so-called “smart agriculture” are expected to intensify farming management. In particular, the automatization of farm work by robot tractors and the development of a farming support system by collecting and analyzing the big data which relate to cultivation managements and operations are expected to save farm labor and to improve the crop yield and quality. However, smart agricultural technologies themselves do not convert the cultivation technology and cropping system. Since the establishment of a middle-size mechanized rice cultivation system in the 1970s, the basic structure of the rice cultivation system has not changed. Therefore, for the improvement of land productivity and development in paddy farming, it is necessary to construct a new crop cultivation technology and farming system with the utilization of smart agricultural technologies.

Eco-labeling schemes have been practiced in Japan to support eco-friendly farmers. Many previous studies have examined consumer preference on rice with eco-labeling which certifies its cultivation method. Most of those investigations, however, cannot sufficiently consider the variation of consumer preference. The objectives of this study are (1) analyzing the consumer preference about information on cultivation method and farmer, considering preference heterogeneity and (2) discussing the character of each consumer preference group. To achieve our purposes, we had an online questionnaire including a choice experiment and conducted latent class model estimation. The main outcomes are as follows. First, consumer preference on cultivation method, rice brand, and information on the farmer are heterogeneous. Second, consumers are likely to prefer the information on the cultivation method to information on the farmer. These results suggest to current eco-labeling schemes the importance of targeting a particular consumer group and providing proper information to each consumer group. Our results also suggest that consumers who prefer the information on the farmer are potentially becoming purchasers of conservation-agricultural products.

The objective of this study is to clarify how modification of the dairy herd can improve the performance of automatic milking systems in Hokkaido. It is focused on the refuse time and milk flow speed, and calculates the daily milk yield and profit, by eliminating the nonconforming cattle and introducing new cattle. From the results, it is possible to secure additional milking time by changing the dairy herd to speed up the milk flow rate. It is found that milking efficiency can be improved. This is more effective than cattle culling to reduce the number of refusals.

This study aims to reveal the determinants of Chinese and Korean tourists' satisfaction and intention to revisit Japan. To study these issues, we assumed that the performance evaluations for destination attributes, such as "Eat Japanese food" and "Shopping," determine tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit. The main results are as follows : First, favorable performance evaluations for "Eat Japanese food" and "Shopping" have statistically significant positive effects for overall satisfaction and intention to revisit. Second, young tourists tend to get higher tourist satisfaction than old tourists, so that we show the efficacy of promotion for young tourists.

This paper sheds light on spatial disparity across agricultural communities in Japan. In the remote and marginal areas, maintaining agricultural activities is increasingly difficult, thereby casting doubt on the sustainability of agricultural communities. Beta convergence tests are employed to determine whether the disparities of (1) the number of farmers, (2) land use, (3) the revenue per farmer, and (4) the number of community activities tend to decline or not. Our regression analysis supports the presence of Beta convergence for most variables, implying that there is no threshold below which agricultural communities inevitably disappear.

In Shichigahama Town, Miyagi Prefecture, where a tsunami struck, farmland is accumulating to large farmers rapidly because of the retirement of affected farmers. Intermediary institutions that manage farmland are utilized for farmland accumulation there. The reconstruction assistance policy contributed to the creation of new principal farmers. But they couldn't use the land efficiently because farmers avoided the prolonged debate about land use adjustment. Mowing work concentrating on large farmers may prevent the continuance of their farming. It is necessary to support planning on efficient land use and role sharing of mowing work among farmers and farmland owners.

In Hokkaido, the largest dairy prefecture in Japan, further reductions in the number of dairy farmers may cause rural communities to collapse. Therefore, in order to understand exactly the exit factor for dairy farms, we analyzed linked data from the 2010 and 2015 census of agriculture descriptively and quantitatively. As a result, we discovered that each region in Hokkaido has unique exit factors. This means that conventional unified policies will not work in many areas. We therefore need to formulate countermeasures against exit of dairy farmers appropriate for each region with reference to this study's results.

The objective of this study is to examine whether land consolidation projects (LCPs) facilitate land rental in agriculture. The Japanese agricultural policy has long been aiming at consolidating small-scale farms into sufficiently large size farms. A theoretical model in this paper predicts that the LCPs increase the demand for farmland on both lessors and lessees, which obscures the effect of land transactions between them. Using data collected by the author from Kyoto Prefecture, this paper measures the effectiveness of the LCPs on land rental. My empirical result shows that the LCPs have no causal effect on land rental, which is not consistent with previous studies in the relevant literature.

We revealed the change of consumption behavior regarding game meat and the factors by analyzing the association with the change of consumer awareness, knowledge, attitude and behavior toward the information. We collected the data by questionnaire survey in 2017 and 2018. The results are as follows. First, the number of consumers who have re-consumed game for a year is 27%. Second, in comparison with a year ago, consumers who re-consume game have more knowledge about the place where game is supplied. Third, such consumers do not only notice but also actively collect game information.

The purpose of this study is to try to measure the impact of climate change caused by global warming on the regional economies with agriculture and the industries associated with agriculture. Using the interregional CGE model, we carried out scenario setting of a global warming simulation without adaptation technology. As a result, we found that climate change caused by global warming has different influences on the region, and it turns out that a regional economic gap is generated. In Hokkaido and Tohoku, production of rice due to global warming plays a positive role.

International prices of cereals in 2018 remain high relative to the level of 2005. This paper examines the influence of the increase in international cereal prices on Hokkaido and Tofuken agriculture, based on an inter-regional computable general equilibrium model. The primary outcome of the simulation is as follows. First, an increase in international prices increases agricultural output and farm labor input in Hokkaido and Tofuken. Second, the level of real GRP decreases in Hokkaido and Tofuken. Third, the welfare level of consumers in Hokkaido improves, but that in Tofuken deteriorates.

The objective of this study is to analyze consumer heterogeneity in yogurt demand. We estimated a hierarchical Bayesian tobit model using scanner panel data. Additionally, we regressed the individual parameters obtained from the model to demographic attributes to capture the relationship between consumers' behavior toward yogurt and demographic attributes of households. The main results are as follows : first, the variance of each parameter in the hierarchical Bayesian model is large so the consumers' preference is heterogeneous. Second, consumers are aggressive in yogurt consumption. Third, the rising of consumers' age, existence of babies and increase in household income might increase yogurt demand.

This paper analyzes an impact of specialization in farming and non-farm employment on farm household food consumption in Vietnam by using data from Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey 2012. To mitigate self-selection bias due to unobserved factors affecting both non-farm employment decision and food consumption such as farmers' ability, we employ endogenous switching regression. We find that the effect of specialization in farm activity and participation in non-farm activity differ from region to region. The results suggest that not only enrolling in a non-farm sector but also specializing in farming increase Vietnamese farmers' welfare in some regions.

The impact of a natural disaster is not only from its damages to resources but the recovery project such as land consolidation also disconnects the farming situation from the previous forecast. Planning based on the current situation is hence required in order to revitalize regional agriculture. We conducted a survey of farm managers and applied a mathematical programing model in a municipality where large-plot field consolidation has been executed after the tsunami disaster. Our result shows both the number of farms and machines can be redundant because of the field improvement although few farm managers consider turning to diversified activities other than rice farming.