12 pages., via online journal, Animal welfare and environmental impacts have been emphasized in the sustainable production of livestock. Labels are useful tools for clearly providing such attribute information to consumers. The aim of this study was to evaluate how human values influence consumer segments for beef with information on animal welfare and environmentally friendly production. Using a choice experiment, we examined whether animal welfare and environmentally friendly labels, country of origin and price impact consumer choice. As results, five heterogeneous consumer classes were identified using a latent class model: label conscious, domestic beef preferring, price conscious, animal welfare preferring and not interested in production method. Almost 90% of consumers were interested in and willing to pay for beef with animal welfare or environmentally friendly label. The classes with significant preferences for such labeled beef were affected by “openness to change”, “self-enhancement” and “security”. Improving consumer attitudes and strengthening consumer perception towards labeled beef by marketers and policy makers will be required.
24 pages., via online journal., Social innovation has received widespread attention in the rural development field, especially its contribution to future rural sustainability. Social innovation revolves around social networks. Rural areas, however, can be relatively disadvantaged by their geographical peripherality. Social media, therefore, has strong potential to foster social innovation by enabling remote communication, but in rural areas, social media use may be low because of an aging and decreasing population. This study examined community-level adoption and use of social media in rural areas in Japan, with a focus on Facebook, for the purpose of sharing community information and facilitating networking with a variety of actors to promote rural social innovation. The study involved a comprehensive search and case studies targeting 139,063 rural communities and 10,922 rural joint-communities, all of which are legally designated agricultural communities throughout Japan. The search found that disadvantaged rural communities’ adoption of Facebook was scarce, and most of the communities that had adopted Facebook did not expand their social networks. Furthermore, investigation into the communities that had adopted social networking to a larger extent revealed that external supporters or migrants had essential roles in successful networking. Based on the obtained findings, this study has provided insights for future policy design.
13 pages., Online via Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). 13 pages., Results of an online survey indicated that urban respondents did not have a comprehensive understanding of wildlife and any positive views were primarily abstract. Conversely, rural individuals had diverse perceptions, both positive and negative.
11 pages, via online journal article, This study of Japan's electoral geography focuses on the outcomes of the 2014 General Election for the House of Representatives. It reflects on the political power of segmented policy communities involved in international free trade and domestic agricultural policy reform and the way they interact with each other. The capability of these policy communities to negotiate behind-the-scenes trade-offs, in order to facilitate reform without disrupting the status quo, is identified as a major determinant of the power structure in contemporary Japan. Also, as low-information and low-participation elections tend to result in a high rate of re-election of incumbents, the depoliticisation of the citizenry is in the interest of these policy communities. Therefore, specific policies and the differentiation among political parties played only a minor role during the 2014 electoral campaign. The paper demonstrates that the strong force of the agricultural policy community to resist transformational change is still deeply rooted in the proportional overrepresentation of agricultural interests built into the electoral system. It concludes that within the context of an increasing deficit of legitimacy and an aggravating depoliticisation trend, commitments to fundamental polity reform are integral to voters' perceptions of the fairness of Japan's democratic institutions. Significant structural reforms that embody federalist and direct democracy principles are discussed as an alternative to the unitary state model in order to seriously tackle issues of proportional misrepresentation and adequately accommodate rural interests.
6 pages., Online via UI electronic subscription, Describes the scope, mission, and activities of Results, an international citizen's lobby which has grown to include 150 groups in seven countries. Focuses on these major approaches to ending hunger and poverty in the Third World: small-farmer agricultural development, improving the survival of small children through immunization, oral rehydration therapy, breast-feeding and growth monitoring, promoting small loans to the poorest people. and adopting concrete, measurable goals to reduce global poverty.
Via online journal., Recent developments in shrimp culture have resulted in the entry of high-quality, lower priced shrimp into the Japanese market, displacing the Australian product from its previously competitive position. The response of producers in Australia has been to form the Australian Prawn Promotion Association (APPA). An inspection of the literature suggests that demand-, product-, market-, and producer-related factors are thought necessary for successful promotion of agricultural and seafood products. In an attempt to analyze these factors, research was conducted in Japan in April and August 1991. Information for the study was gained from a review of the available literature and from interviews with the staff of a wide cross-section of companies and other organizations involved in the Japanese shrimp industry. It was found that: 1. the prospects of an APPA-style promotional campaign aimed at reducing the price elasticity of demand appear poor, and 2. there are few opportunities to differentiate Australian product effectively.