ABSTRACT
Much of the discussion in the preceding chapters has focused on identifying the key organisational, electoral and representational dimensions of agrarian power. The following analysis examines how this power is mobilised by Nokyo across a range of agricultural policy issues, including support and stabilisation prices, market liberalisation and the agricultural budget. Nokyo is chosen because it has dominated the conduct of rice-roots agricultural policy campaigns in the postwar period and because it is widely regarded as one of Japan’s most powerful pressure groups, ‘as influential in lobbying as the zaibatsu corporations.’ 1 A lot of public attention that Nokyo receives stems from this aspect of its activities. 2
