Given former Prime Minister Koizumi s reformist zeal, agriculture might have been expected to be high on his list of targets for so-called structural reform . However, an investigation of the record of his administration on agricultural policy reveals only modest achievements in terms of policy...

‘Japan Inc.’ is manifested in the agricultural sector as a classic subgovernment consisting of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the agricultural cooperative organisation (Nokyo). This three-way coalition of bureaucratic, party and...