Japan’s seemingly monolithic protectionist farm policies were often easily moderated by external pressures. This study analyzes the change of the degree and the methods of protectionist farm policies, focusing on Japan’s most important crop, rice. It calculates consumer surplus, producer...

The purpose of this paper is to examine politically sensitive food safety problems from the viewpoint of political economy. The model was built in order to clarify the behaviors of consumers and politicians, employing the prospect theory and the median voter theorem. Major findings and policy...