The Farm Lobby and Agricultural Policy in Japan

Abstract

Japanese agricultural policymaking has been changing over the past generation. For much of the postwar era, policy formulation fell under the purview of the powerful “farm lobby”—an iron triangle consisting of farm bureaucrats, conservative politicians, and Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), a nationwide network of agricultural cooperative organizations. For the most part, the lobby prioritized the heavy subsidization of farm household incomes and other market-distorting redistributive measures. But by the end of the twentieth century, severe demographic and economic challenges in the countryside combined with new electoral rules to weaken the relative powers of the farm lobby and generate a gradual shift toward structural reform in the farm sector. In tracing these policy-related developments, which reached new heights during the second administration of Shinzō Abe, this chapter illuminates the significance of the organized farm vote, the empowerment of prime ministerial leadership, and the changing fortunes of agriculture in Japan.