Nokyo

This is actually kind of an anniversary post, as my first entry was on March 28, 2009. This post is about Nokyo, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, and this is an appropriate topic.

When I first started my blog, it wandered around a bit before coming to settle in a general way on the online version of the Nokyo Shimbun, the newspaper of the Japan agricultural cooperatives. So while I did not exactly hit every topic of the week in Japanese agriculture, I ended up talking about the issues which were important to Nokyo.

One of the interesting things about Nokyo for me has been to see the deeply negative attitude that western scholars and business community has for Nokyo. Japanese business groups such as Keidanren view Nokyo as the enemy as well.

So it is a little fitting that I stumbled upon a 1981 paper from Pacific Affairs written by an Australian academic called "The Japanese Farm Lobby and Agricultural Policy-Making".

The paper is valuable because it spells some of the basic features of Nokyo in a readily understandable way. In my next one or two posts, I am going to write some of the things Professor George has written, because most of her observations are equally relevant today.

But to me the harsh criticisms by western academics toward Nokyo are a little hard to understand. Here is an example from the paper on page 411.

"Nokyo's unchallenged monopoly of economic activities in the farm sector is matched by its grasp on politics and policy-making for agriculture. It occupies a unique position vis a vis the government, acting as its agent for the administration of a whole range of policies. Agricultural laws integrate Nokyo directly into the functioning of the agriculture and forestry administration. They include the Agricultural Basic Law, the Food Control Law, the Law Relating to Price Stabilization for Livestock Products, and the Feed Demand and Supply Stabilization Law. The government also uses Nokyo as a channel for payments to producers, including subsidies, and other forms of financial assistance. As part of this ancillary role, Nokyo enjoys special budgetary privileges, automatic consultation in policy-making and a close alliance with the governing conservative LDP."

The basic recurring theme in the west is that Nokyo has way more influence and control over policy-making than a backwards, anti- big business, cooperative should have.

While I try to avoid talking about politics in my blog, I am basically sympathetic with the value system that Nokyo represents whether on not the organization is an exemplary business model or not. I understand its desire to maintain rural Japan at any cost and to keep Japan's self-sufficiency rate to be threatened by excessive food imports. I understand the symbolic importance of rice agriculture, for example, which goes far beyond its profitability as a sector.