Japan, being a land starved country depends on import of practically all natural resources from others and its survival is ensured by the technological edge it has in value addition to them through cutting edge processing technologies. How ever it is self-sufficient as far as rice is concerned which happens to be the staple cereal for most of the population. Wheat and soy consumption is a post world war II phenomenon, mostly due to the influence of Americans who have sizable presence and influence in Japan and both these food grains are imported to a large extent. More than 60% of wheat and 74% of soybean required are met from imports, mostly from America and Canada at a huge cost.
Under a massive agriculture revival plan running into more than $ 10 billion, the agricultural sector in Japan is set to challenge the dominance of American farmers on the dining table of Japanese consumers, hoping to reverse the trend significantly with in a decade. "The DPJ will take power for the first time after winning the recent election with promises including paying farmers when prices drop below production costs and achieving self- sufficiency in "important grains." Japan depended on imports for 59 percent of its food in the year ended March 31, the highest rate among developed countries".
Are we seeing another subsidy regime being born and even though western countries are going to be the sufferers, the WTO philosophy of removing such subsidies under free trade regime is going to take a beating. How this is going to affect developing countries is not certain at this time, though it might be minimal. Many food imports originating from developing countries are difficult to be produced in Japan. One off shoot of this development could be rapid commercialization of newer production technologies like hydroponics and aeroponics in the near future.
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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