A Case Study of Post 3/11/2011 Organic Farmers in Saga, Fukuoka, Kagawa, and Hyogo Prefectures Seth A.Y
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Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Theses Spring 5-2012 The oM vement for Sustainable Agricultural in Japan: A Case Study of Post 3/11/2011 Organic Farmers in Saga, Fukuoka, Kagawa, and Hyogo Prefectures Seth A.Y. Davis Seton Hall University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/theses Part of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, and the Asian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Seth A.Y., "The oM vement for Sustainable Agricultural in Japan: A Case Study of Post 3/11/2011 Organic Farmers in Saga, Fukuoka, Kagawa, and Hyogo Prefectures" (2012). Theses. 227. https://scholarship.shu.edu/theses/227 The Movement for Sustainable Agriculture in Japan: A Case Study ofPost 3/11/2011 Organic Farmers in Saga, Fukuoka, Kagawa, and Hyogo Prefectures BY: SETH A.Y. DAVIS B.S., RUTGERS UNIVERSITY NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ 1999 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE PROGRAM OF ASIAN STUDIES AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY 2012 THE MOVEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN: A CASE STUDY OF POST 311112011 ORGANIC FARMERS IN SAGA, FUKUOKA, KAGAWA AND HYOGO PREFECTURES THESIS TITLE BY SETH A.Y. DAVIS APPROVED MONTH, DAY, YEAR SHIGER OSUKA, Ed.D MENTOR (FIRST READER) EDWIN PAK-WAH LEUNG, Ph.D EXAMINER (SECOND READER) t;jlO /2-012 MARIA SIBAU, Ph.D EXAMINER (THIRD READER) An1Y ~Mr1i ANNE MULLEN-HOHL, Ph.D HEAD OF DEPARTMENT A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE PROGRAM OF ASIAN STUDIES AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY, SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABSTItJ\CT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii CHAPTER I: INTR0 D U CTION ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Basis of Research ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2. Research Methodology and Theory --------------------------------------------------- 6 CHAPTER II: JAPAN'S AGRICULTURAL HiSTORY AND POLICIES THAT HA~ DRI~N CHANGE --------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 1. Early Subsistence Farming Before Commercial Agriculture ---------------------- 12 2. Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1603) to the End of World War II (1945) -------- 15 3. A Policy of Small Farming and Agricultural Protectionism (1945-2011) ------ 21 4. Foreign Pressures and a Shifting of Japan's Agricultural Protectionism -------- 30 CHAPTER III: FIELD STUDY OF ORGANIC FARMING IN JAPAN ------------- 39 1. Objectives for Field Study in Japan ------------------------------------------------ 39 2. The Foundations of Organic Farming in Japan ------------------------------------- 42 3. Overview of Agricultural Field Research ---------------------------------------- 47 CHAPTER IV: THE LEGISLATION SETTING ORGANIC STANDARDS AND ORGANIC JAS CERTIFICATION ------------------------------------------------- 52 1. The JAS Law and Its Basic Components -------------------------------------------- 52 2. Kizuka Tadamitsu: A Registered Certifying Body for Organic JAS ------------- 55 3. JAS Certified Farmers and Non-Certified Organic Farmers ---------------------- 58 CHAPTER V: SAGA'S ORGANIC FARMERS, EDUCATION AND FOOD CONSCIOUSNESS ----------------------------------------------------------- 65 1. Non-certified Organic Farmers of Mitsuse ------------------------------------------ 65 2. Fukuoka Organic Agricultural Association Conference ---------------------------- 70 3. Tanaka Kinji: Shizen Nouhou and Less is More ------------------------- 77 4. Educating Children and the Public About Organic Farming and Healthy Foods - 82 5. Slow Foods and Restaurants in the Organic Farming Community --------------- 84 III CHAPTER VI: KAGAWA'S AND HYOGO'S ORGANICS --------------------------- 88 I. On to Kagawa and Organic Honey --------------------------------------------------- 88 2. Suezawa Takuro: His Way of Organic Farming and Marketing ------------------ 91 3. Sakaguchi Nori: The Organic Farmer Who Inspired this Thesis ----------------- 98 4. Hashimoto Shinj i: The Organic Teikei Movement -------------------------------- 103 CHAPTER VII: IMPACT OF FUKUSHIMA RADIATION CONTAMINATION ON ORGANIC FARMING AND FOOD SAFETY -------------------------------------- 107 1. Government Regulations for Levels of Radiation in Food --------------------- 107 2. A Visit to a Nuclear Power Plant at Genkai with Kizuka Tadamitsu ---------- 116 3. Views From Farmers of Saga and Fukuoka --------------------------------------- 119 4. Sakaguchi Nori's Perspective ------------------------------------------------------- 121 5. Hashimoto Shinji's Statement 122 CHAPTER VIII: CONCLU SI ON ----------------------------------------------------------- 125 APPENDIX: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS --------------------------------------------- 135 ]. Kizuka Tadamitsu Interview ------------------------------------------------------- 135 2. Tanaka Kinji Interview ---------------------------------------------------------------- 136 3. Suezawa Takuro Interview 140 4. Sakaguchi Nori Interview 144 5. Hashimoto Shinji Interview 150 GLOSSARY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 158 iv With love, for my wife Makiko and my son Yuma v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the very large number of people who have contributed to the material in this thesis, and who have supported me in many different ways throughout the process of writing it. To each of them, including those not mentioned here by name, they have my gratitude. I would like to thank Dr. Shigeru Osuka for serving as my advisor and for being enthusiastically supportive of my diverse interests. I would also like to thank Dr. Edwin Pak-wah Leung and Dr. Maria Sibau ofthe Asian Studies Program at Seton Hall University for being readers for this thesis and for their valuable guidance while writing it. I would like to thank Aurelia George-Mulgan for generously sharing her research articles prior to publication. I am deeply indebted to the many people who helped me to accomplish my field research. I would like to thank my dear friends Sakaguchi Nori and Tamayama Tomoyo for their amazing dedication to chemical-free farming and for their support in this research. They were the inspiration for this project and I have always cherished my visits to their peaceful farm-haven. I am deeply thankful to Akamatsu Takako and her family for their friendship, for hosting us in Saga and for the many introductions Takako provided. wish to thank to all of the different farmers, teachers, professors, restaurant workers and grocers who generously shared their time, expertise, experience and resources to teach me what was needed in order to write a valid thesis. I hope that I fairly and accurately portrayed each of them in this paper. Thank you to Uematsu Akiko for taking me all around vi Kagawa, and for taking an interest in my research. This graduate thesis has been a significant challenge. As a full-time high-school teacher as well as the chief instructor at a martial arts school, I already had a full work schedule before I took on the task of being a graduate student. I would like to thank my wife Makiko and my son Yuma for their patience, tolerance, supportiveness and love throughout graduate school and the writing ofthis thesis. I also would like to express my deep gratitude to my close friend and co-instructor, Mr. Thomas Posey for his amazing work keeping the school running for the entire summer of 20 11 while I was in Japan conducting research and on plenty of other days as well. Also, thank you to Jason for your friendship and help. I am grateful to my parents David and Maxine Davis, who have done a lot to facilitate my graduate studies, and who have always supported my interests in martial arts and Japanese language and cultural studies since I first read the novel Shogun 23 years ago and got hooked. vii / j i ABSTRACT The cumulative impacts of pollution caused by chemical agriculture, food-insecurity and the desire for safe, healthful, and trustworthy sources of food led to the movement for sustainable organic agriculture (yuuki nouhou) in Japan beginning in the 1970s. Since then, the movement has evolved continuously in response to economic, political, environmental, and social influences at local, national and international levels. As a result ofThe Fukushima Daiichi nuclear melt-down on 3/11/2011, radiation contamination has spread to varying extents throughout many areas of Honshu, particularly in the Tohoku region, and has threatened the national food safety and food security ofJapan. Organic farmers in all parts ofJapan have turned their attention to this national disaster through their efforts to provide safe produce to consumers and through food-safety activism and anti-nuclear protesting. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the state ofsustainable agriculture in Japan and prospects for the future, including a discussion ofthe potential long-term impact ofthe Fukushima nuclear disaster on farming and food-safety in Japan. An emphasis is placed on organic farming (yuuki nougyou) and related sustainable farming methods, with a focus on the economics, politics, and social dynamics ofthe movement at local, national levels. Chapter II, of this thesis includes a history ofJapanese agricultural methods and changes in agricultural society from the Azuchi-Momoyama