Characteristics and developing direction of advanced agricultural corporations amid the change in consumer lifestyles

The purpose of this paper is 1) to clarify the characteristics and developing direction of advanced agricultural corporations amid the change in consumer lifestyles and 2) to analyze the social aspect of advanced agricultural corporations in the scope of regional agricultural development. The characteristics of the corporations are as follows: 1) Customer-oriented farm management is adopted, and sales management is given priority over other kinds of management including production management. 2) For customer-oriented farms, it is very useful to provide the consumers with information about the products, production process and the producers themselves to increase the amount of their sales. 3) Many corporations are diversified not only in production but also in processing and sales. 4) As regards the production technology, organic or chemical reduction cultivation is adopted, because the consumers want to buy safe and reliable agricultural products. The relationship between the corporations and regional society has the following characteristics: 1) The corporations contract the machinery operations of the local part-time farms in the region and also the part-time farms buy the agriculture products of the corporations. So, it is very important for the corporations that the part-time farms in the region are reliable. 2) Agricultural products including processed products are consumed based on the local food culture, so local consumers are very important for the corporations when they sell their agricultural products. 3) Brand formation of the regional agricultural products is as important as that of individual corporations. 4) Organic agriculture production by the individual corporations should be developed as a sales strategy for sustainable agriculture in the entire region. 5) Corporations should promote interchanges between urban and rural areas. 6) Because the corporations are diversified into food processing or the sales sector, it is easy for them to accept employees that have various abilities.