The framework of the postwar agricultural policy and the new agricultural basic law

The process for establishing the framework of postwar agricultural policy started just after the end of World War II, initiated by agricultural bureaucrats. Rural land reform was successfully implemented as an indispensable matter which contributed toward the restructuring of the policy framework in the agricultural sector. The high growth of the Japanese economy enabled the government to provide various types of subsidies to farmers, whereby the government could successfully attract political support from farmers. Although the Agricultural Basic Law in 1961 regarded the structural reform of the farming system as its main task, actual policies implemented under the law attached high priority to the rice price policy. The current framework of agricultural policy was thus established, where secret negotiations in the inner circle of a triad - politicians, bureaucrats and agricultural cooperatives - have continued to play a key role. The exclusiveness and opacity in the process of decision-making and policy implementation aroused a deep suspicion of its appropriateness among many people. After the mid-1980s, the current framework of agricultural policy has encountered great criticism from various social groups who have long been excluded from the decision-making process. The most influential criticism comes from big-business circles demanding to abolish or ease the governmental intervention on agricultural trade. Under the economic restructuring process, a number of people in Japan seem to be driven to self-help efforts and have become skeptical about the function of the public sector, which tendency has given an impetus to the restructuring of the policy framework in the agricultural sector. Under such a situation, however, we should not overlook a different stream of new social movements organized in the communal sector. The new stream takes a critical stance to both the private and public sectors