Abstract
Development of organic agriculture has been sluggish in contemporary Japanese society. To better understand and capture the status of policy implementation in both urban and semirural areas, this study examined ordinance designated cities (ODCs) by reviewing tendencies and their interests in organic agricultural policies. In concrete, this study reviews the status, trends, interests, and barriers of organic agricultural policies in Japan. This study compared ODCs covering largely urban areas and those ODCs including semirural areas. The quantitative element of comparisons is based on the population and economic size and then on semirural and agricultural characteristics through cluster analysis. As a result, urban ODCs were more concerned about the policies close to consumption. ODCs including semirural areas were more concerned about the ones on production. There are also ODCs in between to show diverse characteristics in the policy implementations and interests. To take this difference into consideration, all types of the ODCs would need to implement the policies for promotion of organic agriculture in future. The results showed the rural-urban difference at the ODCs in the policy tendency through the financial support for certifications, education, and organizing a marché. Further policy supports, such as accumulation of market information, mutual-learning among ODCs, and the information on the policy effect on the environment, economy, and society, can potentially support efficiency of policy. The general low policy interests among the ODCs could be improved by emphasizing the needs of locally sensitive policy with the effective participation of concerned farmers and other stakeholders including consumers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data of this study is available upon request.
References
Cerutti AK, Contu S, Ardente F, Donno D, Beccaro GL (2016) Carbon footprint in green public procurement: policy evaluation from a case study in the food sector. Food Policy 58:82–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2015.12.001
Department of Land Maintenance and Land Use, Bayern (n.d.) Eco-model regions. https://www.oekomodellregionen.bayern/. Accessed 16 December 2019 [in German]
Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism of Austria (2015) The organic farming action programme 2015–2020. https://www.bmnt.gv.at/english/agriculture/Organicfarming/The-Organic-Farming-Action-Programme-2015-2020.html. Vienna. Accessed 27 Jan 2020
Hatano T, Fujimoto T (2018) Link farming and eating at a local level-the trails of organic agriculture. In: Akitsu M, Sato Y, Takenouchi H (eds) New ethics about farming and eating. Syōwadō, Kyoto, pp 47–70 [in Japanese]
Kohsaka R (2010) Developing biodiversity indicators for cities: applying the DPSIR model to Nagoya and integrating social and ecological aspects. Ecol Res 25:925–936. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-010-0746-7
Kohsaka R (2017) The myth of washoku: a twisted discourse on the “uniqueness” of national food heritages. J Eth Foods 4(2):66–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jef.2017.05.004
Kohsaka R, Okumura S (2014) Greening the cities with biodiversity indicators: experience and challenges from Japanese cities with CBI. In: Nakano S, Yahara T, Nakashizuka T (eds) Integrative observations and assessments. Springer, Tokyo, pp 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54783-9_22
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) (2018) The situation over organic agriculture. https://www.maff.go.jp/j/council/seisaku/kazyu/h30_12/attach/pdf/index-16.pdf. Accessed 15 Apr 2020 [in Japanese]
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) (2019a) Our country’s situation over organic agriculture. https://www.maff.go.jp/primaff/koho/seminar/2019/index.html. Accessed 16 Dec 2019 [in Japanese]
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) (2019b) The situation over organic agriculture. http://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/index-137.pdf. Accessed 12 Dec 2019 [in Japanese]
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) (2019c) The summary of the decision about the budget on agriculture, forestry, and fishery in the year 2020. https://www.maff.go.jp/j/budget/r2kettei.html. Accessed 17 Feb 2020 [in Japanese]
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (n.d.) The summary of ordinance designated city system. https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000450998.pdf. Accessed 15 April 2020 [in Japanese]
Miyake Y, Kohsaka R (2020a). Will organic sake intoxicate consumers? Procurements of rice as bottlenecks and comparative procurement strategies by four brewers in Japan. J Eth Foods (in press).
Miyake Y, Kohsaka R (2020b) From hoes to story-telling as “Weapons of the Weak”; farmers resistance to neo-liberal 2007 multi-product management stabilization plan in Japan. J Eth Foods 7: 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-020-00052-6
Nakajima K (2015) Organic agriculture in Japan: toward the restoration of agriculture and land. In: Nakajima K, Ōyama T, Ishii K, Kim K (eds) The possibility organic agriculture opens: Asia, America, and Europe. Mineruva Shobō, Kyoto, pp 1–132 [in Japanese]
Nishiyama M (2014) The current state of alternative agriculture and local food system. In: Saito O, Sato K (eds) Food chain and regional renovation. Food System Research Series, vol 4. Nōrin Tōkei Shuppan, Tokyo, pp 225–238 [in Japanese]
Organic City Network (n.d.-a) About us. https://www.biostaedte.de/ueber-uns. Accessed 17 April 2020 [in German]
Organic City Network (n.d.-b) More organic in municipalities. https://www.biostaedte.de/projekte#mehrbio. Accessed 17 April 2020 [in German]
Risku-Norja H, Løes A-K (2017) Organic food in food policy and in public catering: lessons learned from Finland. Org Agric 7(2):111–124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-016-0148-4
Uchiyama Y, Kohsaka R (2019) Application of the city biodiversity index to populated cities in Japan: influence of the social and ecological characteristics on indicator-based management. Ecol Indic 106:105420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.05.051
Willer H, Lernoud J (eds) (2019) The world of organic agriculture: statistics and emerging trends 2019. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM-Organics International
Code availability
This study utilized Microsoft Excel for data analyses.
Funding
The study for this article was funded by Policy Research Institute, MAFF of Japan as the Commissioned Project on the Policy Science of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries from the year 2018 to 2020: Factors to Facilitate Production and Export of Organic Agricultural Products: Analysis of Status and Trends in EU and Implications for Japan. In addition, the study was funded by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP16KK0053 and JP17K02105 and DAIKO Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miyake, Y., Uchiyama, Y. & Kohsaka, R. Status and trends of urban organic agricultural policy in Japan: the survey on ordinance designated cities. Org. Agr. 10, 497–508 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-020-00311-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-020-00311-5