Globalization, Agriculture, and Rural Social Change in Japan

Increasingly, globalization is being used to conceptualize ongoing transformations in agrofood production systems. One focus is to understand how globalization expresses itself at the local level. In this paper I contribute to the examination of this issue by analyzing how Japan's agrarian sector is being altered as a consequence of increased activity on the part of transnational corporations. By doing so, I address the question of whether Japan's national agricultural production system is being globalized, despite its comparatively unique agrarian history and Japan's role in the global agrofood trading system as a major food importing, rather than an exporting, nation. The evidence presented demonstrates that transnational firms are beginning to expand their presence in Japanese agricultural commodity production. As these are transnational firms, and as the result of this process is to force Japanese agriculture to compete against foreign agricultures for its ‘home’ market, it is argued that this process indicates that Japanese agriculture is being globalized, although in a manner that does reflect an adaptation to local conditions.