Japanese Agricultural Policies Towards 2000: Swimming with the Tide
Japanese agricultural policy has undergone substantial change in the last year. Since the completion of the Uruguay Round, the rice market has been partially opened, import quotas on agricultural products have been replaced by tariffs and there has been a general shift away from consumer funding of agricultural programs to funding by taxpayers. These changes are making Japanese agricultural policies more transparent and more open to scrutiny. There is now recognition in Japan that the changes are irreversible and that agriculture will be faced with increasing competition from imports.
Recent developments in the Japanese food distribution system
Japanese distribution systems have been undergoing change because of social and economic developments in Japan, and also because of regulatory changes by the Japanese government. This is significant because there is the view, particularly among Japan's trading partners, that the Japanese distribution system represents a non-tariff barrier to exports. This paper examines some of the recent changes in Japan, focusing specifically on food. One of the conclusions of the paper is that the growth in Japanese supermarket chains and consumer cooperatives will increase the opportunities for foreign food exporters to supply the Japanese market.
The Use of Qualitative Information in Macro-Economic Policy Analysis
The majority of macro-economic policy models takes for granted that conflicts among objectives can be assessed by means of a tradeoff analysis. Such tradeoffs imply that sacrifices and benefits of various impacts of decisions can be measured on a cardinal scale, so that a conventional macro-economic utility or welfare analysis can be applied.