The contributing authors of Understanding the Japanese Food and Agrimarket discuss broad forces that affect markets in Japan and specific situations faced in marketing grain, livestock, and seafood products; fruits; vegetables; and wood products. Many of the contributors speak and read Japanese and have lived in Japan for extensive periods; they are able to give deep insights into how and why the Japanese consumption and distribution system behaves as it does. They draw on their expertise to fully explore various Japanese food and fiber markets. As they demystify the Japanese market, they illustrate for readers several systematic approaches to mastering the Japanese food and fiber markets. Readers will discover that effective long-term marketing strategies in Japan must be based on sound analytical information. The contributors provide such needed material with chapters on items as diverse as wine, grain products, beef, and fruits and vegetables. Some of the specific topics covered include: changes in Japanese food consumption Japanese food distribution system demand for beef products in Japan demand for vegetables and vegetable seeds Japanese wine market demand for bakery products new food products for the Japanese market developing trade relations in wood products Executives of commodity associations or firms exporting foods to Japan will find the general sections most interesting as well as chapters specific to their products. Teachers and students exploring exporting to the Japanese market will be intrigued by the various dimensions of the “multifaceted” nature and opportunities of the Japanese market.

This study is an unique approach to social and cultural history of Japan through the scope of food and food ways. In this book-length study of food markets in the early modern Japanese capital of Edo, Akira Shimizu draws a fascinating picture of early modern Japanese society where specialty foods—seasonal, regional, and hard-to-find delicacies that satisfied the palate of nation’s highest political authority, the shogun—served as a powerful nexus that connected different social groups. In the course of their daily lives, peasants, fisherfolks, and merchants, who made specialty food available at the market, were in constant negotiation with powerful wholesalers and government authorities in charge of procuring specialty foods of the highest qualities for the shogun’s Edo Castle. Utilizing a number of previously unused archival materials that reveals the lives of those at the bottom of the society, the book traces the production, supply, and handling of specialty foods and shows how ordinary people were empowered to assume control over the distribution of specialty food, eventually affecting their procurement for the shogunal kitchen. In doing so, they disrupted the existing market order on the shogunal requisition, and led to the reconfiguration of market relations.

This book describes the profound structural change in Japan's agriculture from its politically marginalized, economically fragmented, traditional labour-intensive postwar mode of production to its current dual modern shape of a highly capitalized, politically organized and protected sector.

One Purpose and Structure.- Two Identifying Shrimp.- Three The Shrimp Encyclopedia.- Four The Illustrated Guide.- Five Specifications for Processing Shrimp.- Six Resources and Further Reading.- Indexes.- General Index.- Index of Scientific Names.- Index of Common, Commercial and F.A.O. Names.- Combined Index.