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.