Report

The Cost of Japan's Farm Protectionism - Part 1

posted by Richard Katz on September 17, 2014

Found in Japan, categorized in Macro

Tags: Japan farm agriculture

Report Cover

Headline

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement famously referred to America’s richest 1%. Japan could perhaps use an “Occupy JA” movement that called out its most protected 0.2%.

Abstract

How much is it costing the Japanese people each year for Abe administration to protect the farm vote and the farmers’ lobby known as JA-Zenchu (JA being short for Japan Agriculture)? While we cannot pretend to give a precise estimate, we can give a sense of the some of the magnitudes involved, and they add up to several ties the entire output of the farm sectors.
 

About Richard Katz

Richard Katz is Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics In International Affairs, the New York correspondent for Weekly Toyo Keizai, a leading Japanese business magazine, and formerly the editor of The Oriental Economist Report, a monthly newsletter on Japan.

Mr. Katz has taught about Japan’s economy as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, and as a Visiting Lecturer in Economics at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.

Mr. Katz is the author of two books on Japan's economic travails and has just finished a third book on reviving entrepreeurship in Japan.

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