Overview
Although the elimination of or substantial reduction in tariffs on agricultural products is required in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations (including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations), the Japanese agricultural community is strongly resisting it and insists on exempting as many agricultural products as possible. On the other hand, the domestic market for edible agricultural products, which has been protected by high tariffs, is declining due to an aging and decreasing population. Measures limited to protecting the domestic markets will clearly lead to a decline in Japanese agriculture, and securing overseas markets is now required for agriculture as well. Abenomics heavily emphasizes agricultural policy reform. With an awareness of these problems, this project outlines the necessary policy reform recommendations, following the analysis of the obstacles of agricultural structural reform and the recent agricultural policy directions of the United States and the European Union.
November 5, 2013 - March 31, 2015
