| Japan’s seemingly monolithic protectionist farm policies were often easily moderated by external pressures. This study analyzes the change of the degree and the methods of protectionist farm policies, focusing on Japan’s most important crop, rice. It calculates consumer surplus, producer surplus and government spending in the past fifty years and integrates these figures into one diagram utilizing the STC (surplus transformation curve) analysis, developed by Bruce Gardner in 1983. The result of the analyses suggests that external pressures have a considerable impact on domestic protectionist farm policies. For example, in 1986 when the demand by the RMA (Rice Milling Association) in the U.S. that Japan should open its rice market was issued, the STC... |
