ABSTRACT
Agriculture is a highly politicised industry in Japan and agricultural policies the quintessential expression of the political power of Japanese farmers. No explanation of Japanese agricultural support and protection is complete without due account being taken of political factors, particularly the primacy of electoral and interest group politics in this sector of state policy. Agriculture is one area where political forces in economic policymaking have been remarkably salient and where the political intrusiveness of interest groups has had a large impact on the agricultural policy formation process. The agricultural sector has been too electorally powerful, too highly organised, too visible publicly and too well represented in the Diet and in the ruling party for the government to ignore the political ramifications of any major decision on agricultural policy. The political strength of agriculture has undoubtedly contributed to the distinctly pro-rural, anti-urban bias of the ruling LDP, and thus to the general neglect of urban consumer interests in the policies of postwar Japanese governments. To this extent, the Japanese state has been captive of agrarian interests.
