|
Japan Agricultural Cooperatives
Observers have suggested that the great influence of
the
Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (Nokyo) in
policy making
partly resulted from a widespread feeling of gratitude to
the
dwindling agricultural sector, which in the past supported
the
country's industrial modernization. Nokyo spokespersons
were
vociferous in their claims that agriculture is somehow
intimately
connected with the spirit of the nation. They argued that
selfsufficiency , or near self-sufficiency, in food production,
resulting from government support of the nation's farmers,
was
central to Japan's security. The public in general was
receptive to
their arguments: an opinion poll in 1988, for example,
revealed
that 70 percent of respondents preferred paying a higher
price for
rice to importing it.
Nokyo, organized in 1947 at the time of the land
reform, had
local branches in every rural village in the late 1980s.
Its
constituent local agricultural cooperatives included
practically
all of the population for which farming was the principal
occupation. Since its founding, Nokyo had been
preoccupied with
maintaining and increasing government price supports on
rice and
other crops and with holding back the import of cheaper
agricultural products from abroad. Self-sufficient in
rice, Japan
in the early 1990s imported only a tiny quantity. A
special variety
of Thai rice, for example, is used specifically to make
the
traditional Okinawan liquor, awamori. Nokyo's
determination
to preserve "Fortress Japan" in the agricultural realm had
brought
it into conflict with business groups such as Keidanren,
which
advocated market liberalization and cheaper food prices.
Although closely allied to the LDP in the past, Nokyo
and other
agricultural groups were outraged by the government's
concessions
to the United States on imports of oranges and beef in
1988. Local
cooperatives threatened to defect to the Japan Socialist
Party if
government continued to give in to United States demands.
The Japan
Socialist Party chairwoman at the time, Doi Takako, made
agricultural protectionism a major component of her
party's
platform.
Data as of January 1994
|
