ABSTRACT
Globalization has had a deep impact on every part of the world. In general, it seems to have had a destructive effect on agriculture and has led to a fundamental transformation of rural communities. Japan's agriculture and rural society are on the verge of collapse, although many older farmers still work hard to provide us with food and a few members of the younger generation have returned to farming. Although these crises have become increasingly serious, strangely there seems to be an increasing interest in agriculture and rural life among city people. New agricultural policies promote this boom. The concept of the 'multifunctionality' of agriculture, which emphasizes the various roles of agriculture other than food production such as land conservation, water resources conservation, environmental conservation, creation of a beautiful landscape, and cultural inheritance, was introduced as a logical way to protect domestic agriculture in the negotiations on agriculture in the WTO.
