ABSTRACT
Food preferences and consumption patterns depend on tradition, climate, resource availability and propensity to trade, just to mention a few factors. The review of Japan's agricultural economy provided in the previous chapter points to radical changes which have taken place in the past several decades and the last one in particular. Those changes, combined with equally impressive ones in the urban sector, have altered economic patterns, cultural habits--and diet. The objective of this chapter is to provide an explanation of historical and current forces which will influence Japanese demand for beef in the next quarter century. The results from this analysis, along with supply side information developed in the next several chapters, provide the basis for long-term analyses developed later.
