By Ye Xingqing, Wu Zhenjun & Zhou Qunli, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research report No.71, 2017 (Total 5146)　 2017-6-16

Abstract: Affected by resource endowment and over-protection, Japan's agricultural modernization is facing some outstanding problems, such as the shrinkage of agricultural production, the declining rate of food self-sufficiency, and limited land scale management. Besides, more and more farmers have taken part-time jobs other than farming, and the aging process of farmers is becoming increasingly serious. Taxpayers and consumers have to bear great social burden and the agricultural sector has become the major obstacle to trade liberalization. In order to address the challenge of globalization, Japan has actively promoted the liberalization of imported agricultural products and the marketization of domestic prices, unswervingly carried out the integration of farmland, and pushed forward the transformation of agricultural management mode. In addition, Japan has made timely adjustment to agricultural science and technology progress in light of the weak points, won consumers’ trust with high quality products, and developed new industries and new business forms like the sixth-sector industrialization to promote agricultural reform. Japan's experience in dealing with trade liberalization and improving the competitiveness of agriculture has provided us some enlightenments. For instance, The solution to addressing the problem of declining agricultural competitiveness needs a long-term perspective. More efforts need to be made to bring into play the role of market forces, seize the opportunity to promote the scale management of farmland, and promote agricultural science and technology innovation based on agricultural development-oriented requirement. 　

Keywords: agricultural competitiveness, trade liberalization, Japan