ABSTRACT
This chapter has two main objectives. The first and immediate objective is to explore Japan’s agriculture system, notably its endurance but gradual erosion from the 1970s, and recent upheavals that appear to mark a break in that continuity. The second is to tentatively frame Japan’s agriculture system in a broader agri-food framework, which extends to consumers and agri-food importers and their overseas interests. The recent upheavals were triggered by an accumulation of contradictions in the domestic system, the global food crisis of 2007–08, and Japan’s decision to enter into negotiations over the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). Change has come to Japanese agriculture. There are now two broad streams, one moving in the agro-industrial direction, and the other towards ‘differentiated quality’. They represent an embrace and rejection, respectively, of market allocative efficiency with some middle ground that has historical roots.
