Rice farming and the rice market in Japan between globalization, ideology and sustainability. Since the Uruguay Round of the GATT (1986-93) Japan has been under pressure to open its rice market. This is an enormous challenge for Japan’s „rice culture.” Rice has extraordinary symbolic power in Japan. It is considered an almost sacred phenomenon, the „backbone of the nation,” deeply embedded in the cultural landscape, history, society, economy and politics of the island empire. How are the Japanese responding to this challenge? What arguments are they advancing? How should these be assessed from the standpoint of trade liberalization, ideology, structural problems in agriculture and the principles of sustainability? What role do cultural factors play?