ABSTRACT
The agricultural and food supply situation in Japan continues to show strong influences from the years immediately following World War I I. It was during the years of occupation by the Allied Forces that the United States brought to Japan its agricultural expertise along with large amounts of food aid. The agricultural sector was shaken loose from its prewar feudalistic characteristics by a democratic "revolution." In such a setting it was later possible to introduce and extend new technology that greatly increased productivity in agriculture. The seeds of a major change in Japanese eating habits were also planted at this time when shipments of American wheat and milk were sent to feed the Japanese, including school children, many of whom were near the point of starvation because of wartime destruction of the agricultural and fishery industries. Recently, it has become possible in Japan to replace in part the traditional diet of rice and fish by a Western meal. The long-term effects that these years have had on postwar U.S.—Japanese agricultural relations have been considerable.
