Food Sovereignty, Safety and Security: The Role of Rice in Japan and Asia

Abstract

While Japan’s rice growing lifestyle will surely be affected by the global trade order, other countries in the region such as India and Indonesia have growing consumer demand for rice as their populations increase as Japan’s declines. China in particular has a pressing need for access to grains sources such as rice for its large population and it has played an extremely important role in shaping the way the most powerful grain suppliers in the world (The United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil) seek to shape the global market for grains. India is also an expanding economy that is a large consumer of rice, both of these countries markets impact Japanese agricultural policies regarding rice. This chapter presents the Japanese case in comparative context with the evolving security situation in East Asia.