Neoliberal Agricultural Policies and Farmers’ Political Power in Japan

Neoliberal agriculture policies in Japan, as elsewhere, reduce state intervention and expose agricultural producers to market and profit principles. The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations opened up the rice market. As a result, Japan’s neoconservative leaders favored the enlargement, diversification, intensification, and corporatization of the farms receiving government subsidies. In a radical move in 2006, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its agriculture ministry decided that small producers would no longer be protected by subsidies. The state thus attempted to re-regulate in favor of large, corporate farming. However, in a “double-movement” response to neoliberalism, the grassroots smallholders reacted politically and electorally, and overthrew the LDP in national elections. This article traces the development and forms of neoliberalism in Japanese agriculture. It examines the government’s policy of directing subsidies only to large operations, and describes how rural voters, despite the state’s efforts, caused this policy to fail.