Gakunousha Nougakkou, founded by Sen Tsuda, an agricultural enlightener known as a pioneer who introduced Western vegetables and fruits to Japan, was the first agricultural school in Japan. The school was open for less than 10 years from 1875 to 1884, but academic study and practical education that incorporated Western agriculture was conducted. This study aimed to clarify the role played by Gakunousha Nougakkou graduates Hayato Fukuba, Tomoharu Tachibana, Jin Tachibana and Masataro Atoji in the research and cultivation of Western vegetables and fruits. As a result, education at Gakunousha Nougakkou clearly contributed to the motivation and knowledge of cultivating Western vegetables and fruits, which in turn contributed to modernization and development of agricultural production and technology in the Meiji era.

This paper examined the feasibility of environmental policy from the viewpoint of consensus building in the local community. In contemporary Japanese community theory, the community is discussed along with the association (This association refers to social association in Associative Democracy). There is a problem in terms of the feasibility of consensus building in the relationship between association and community. The problem is that stakeholders will not participate in consensus building in the community. This thesis pointed out that the viewpoints of 〈Sustainable Commonality〉 and 〈Motivation for Participation in Commonality Work〉 are important for solving this problem.

This paper examined the practices of environmental policy from concept of “共生” (Kyosei) discussed in environmental ethics and “風土” (Fudo) theory. In conclusion, this paper found that 〈Experienced Self-Motivation〉 is important for 〈Motivation for Participation in Commonality Work〉 for consensus building in the local community.

In this study, I focused on the production methods of an agricultural cooperative sales business, primarily the case of pear sales in suburban wide-area agricultural cooperative mergers. I conducted research based on a literature review and data collected in a survey about pear sales by the Saitama Prefecture Nansai Agricultural Cooperative (JA Nansai). This is a case study of an agricultural cooperative that was part of a county-level wide-area merger 20 years ago. By referring to previous research, I aimed to clarify the current situation and problems of agricultural cooperative sales regarding pear production areas, and to determine the manner and continuation of sales in a nearby city (wide-area merger) agricultural cooperative in the future.

The main points revealed by the example agricultural cooperative in this research were that the reduction in the number of farmers and the reduction of the cultivation area are major tasks, and the idea of shifting to direct sales rather than market shipping has become dominant. The second point, supported by the regional and historical background, was that the individuality of businesses before the merger in each area became clearer. The third point was that cooperative sales are effective for both producers and the community.

The purpose of this study was to clarify consumer evaluation of agricultural products that consider the conservation of biodiversity in an initiative called “Countryside Where People Live with Toki” in Sado City, Niigata Prefecture. In this research, a questionnaire survey was conducted through the Internet.

As a result of this study, it has become clear that consumers who consume organic rice or reduced-pesticide rice on a daily basis positively evaluate the certification requirements of certified rice. Moreover, as a result of estimating the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), it became clear that payment intention increases with pesticide reduction. On the other hand, statistical results revealed no significance related to certification and MWTP for conventional rice consumers.

The present study is the first in the field of agricultural economics to focus on the cat food business─a leading segment in the rapidly expanding pet food market. Cat food is similar to human food products in two respects: two of its major ingredients are tuna and skipjack tuna, which are also eaten by people, and it is produced in the same plants as canned tuna. This study reviewed the pioneering corporate behavior of a corporation that relocated its production base from Thailand, a major overseas manufacturing hub, to Japan in 2015. Further, the decision to reshore was analyzed using marketing research data. The findings indicated that the primary reason for this transition was the firm’s inability to respond to structural changes that have intensified in the industry since 2010. However, the corporation’s reshoring and cooperation with Japanese businesses allowed it to supply unique mid-price range products to compete with the vast number of similar products supplied by major corporations; it could also supply products that can be considered premium. This strategic transition helped the corporation become profitable. Therefore, this corporate behavior can be understood as an appropriate adaptation to the recent changes in market structure.

This study mainly clarified the dietary behavior of Chinese package-tour tourists in Japan and their interaction with Japanese foods. In the past, inbound travel companies often took tourists to Chinese restaurants because the travel agencies had operational priorities. However, more and more Chinese tourists are pursuing “Japanese-ness” for meals at present. In response to this demand, the traditional business mode has changed, and Japanese restaurants have started to accept package-tour tourists. For Chinese tourists, Japanese food culture is not necessarily traditional Japanese cuisine, but rather ramen (hand-pulled noodles) or yakiniku (grilled meat). Moreover, when tourists have free time on their package-tour, they prefer to choose restaurants located in downtown areas because they regard the convenience of having meals between sightseeing and shopping as important. On the other hand, Japanese food services need to pay attention to the different dietary values of foreign tourists when providing food.