In Search of Agricultural Policy Reform in Japan.

Japan's agricultural border protection is high for food, but low for feed, thus effectively protecting both rice and meat products. This border protection is complemented by other governmental support in the form of direct subsidies, capital subsidies, and price supports, together amounting to 37 percent of agricultural GDP in 1985 and not offset by the taxes paid by farmers or on farm products. Changing this protective structure requires resource adjustment, which can be brought about by changing agricultural terms of trade, concomitant with an increase in average farm size and a decline in part-time farming, through a more liberal land-use policy. Copyright 1988 by Oxford University Press.