The political significance of agriculture and the countryside is understood to vary on the economic structure and demographic status of the country in question. Recently, agriculture and rural areas have not been popular research topics in Japanese politics. Possessing one of the most developed economies in the world, with a huge increase in the urban population over the past few decades, its countryside seems to have been forgotten. However, while reading this book written by Hanno Jentzsch, you will be convinced that even in such a highly industrialized economy, the countryside is full of insightful phenomena for us to rethink both Japanese and comparative politics. By analyzing the implementation of national-level agricultural policy from a local perspective, this book shows that practice at the local level is influential on the substantiality of policy changes at the national level. Thus, the author tries to ‘move beyond the dual picture of change and stability’ (p. 9) in Japan's agricultural policies and, more generally, institutions.
Jentzsch's book is composed of five parts and 13 chapters. The first part explains the author's argument and research framework. The author critiques neo-institutionalism as an unsuitable framework to explain institutional change, whether it be based on rational choice theory or other sociological or historical approaches. This book goes beyond the dichotomy of stability or change by introducing perspectives from the local level. Chapter 2 explains the framework of the book. The difficulty with institutionalism is in theorizing institutional changes, as explanations tend to rely on exogenous shocks. This book declares that it will address this issue by lowering its perspective to the local level and analyzing ‘social norms and practices’ (p. 17). Chapter 3 explains the case studied in the book, namely Japan and its rural communities, as the author conducted fieldwork in rural Japanese communities like Hikawa Town, Shimane Prefecture. The focus of the book is the consolidation of farmland to ‘bearer farms’ at the local level, interpretation of national policy enabling this practice, and contributions to ‘harvesting state support’ (p. 20).
Part two discusses the usual image we have of Japanese agriculture – an iron triangle between politicians, agricultural bureaucrats, and farmers. However, the author believes this is only one stage of an entire developmental process through the postwar era and is ‘misleading’ (p. 31), as Japan's agricultural policy is very different before and after that period. Chapters 4 and 5 demonstrate this point with a detailed survey of postwar Japan's agricultural policy and its changes over the years. The author argues that the iron triangle is observed only around the late 1980s, having been incrementally constructed since World War II ended in 1945. Chapter 5 argues that Japanese agriculture was subsequently exposed to great pressure toward reform, analyzing the effects of financial liberalization, the merger of local agricultural cooperatives, and the revision of the Nōkyō Law. This argument might be particularly surprising to those who are interested in Japan and are familiar with the common image of the iron triangle, such as the readers of this book review. The author also points out the limitation of macro-level explanations and seeks to contribute to the theoretical development of institutionalism by combining changes and stability, seemingly contradictory elements, into one overarching argument.
While Part two analyzes changes in Japan's agricultural policy and structure at the national level, Part three develops an overview of agricultural reform at the local level. The author focuses on variations in local agricultural regimes and village institutions and analyzes their impact on the implementation and interpretation of the national agricultural reform. Chapters 6 and 7 provide readers with prerequisite knowledge for the detailed discussion developed in the next part of the book. Chapter 6 argues that differences in policy implementation at the local level are determined by the way in which the local agricultural regime is organized. Functionally, the degree of organization determines how much farmland is consolidated to ‘bearer farms,’ which constitute the core farms within a given region. Politically, it also influences what kinds of ‘bearer farms’ emerge, as well as shaping their relationship with small-scale farmers and local agricultural co-ops. According to the author, the way in which a local agricultural regime is organized is largely determined by its integration with village institutions, which point to ‘local social ties and (hamlet-based) norms and practices’ (p. 85). By introducing Hikawa Town as possessing a well-organized local agriculture regime and other localities with a variety of levels of organization, the author shows the necessity to look at village institutions because some elements are not explained by socioeconomic or topological status.
Chapter 7 goes on to explain the similarity in the postwar formation of Japan's local agricultural regimes. Early postwar Japan reform, like the merger of municipalities, led to overlapping boundaries of formal organizations, such as municipalities, local agricultural co-ops, and agricultural committees. Then, village institution became integrated into a formal structure. Local social ties beyond and across hamlets emerged, and non-farmers began to join agricultural co-ops. Eventually, the institutionalization of local communities has shaped the characteristics of Japanese agriculture such as farmland fragmentation and the rice production control program.
Part four lays out the results of intense fieldwork conducted by the author, effectively showing the originality of the book. This part analyzes village institutions and the implementation of the national agricultural policy at the local level. More specifically, the author explores ways in which the integration of village institutions into local agricultural regimes influences local variations in farmland use, the role of expanding farms, and hamlet-based collective farms. Chapter 8 demonstrates that in Hikawa Town, smooth integration facilitated the exchange of farmland use rights. However, since this exchange system is limited to active farms, outsiders like absent owners cannot access this network, exacerbating the issue of abandoned farmland. Chapter 9 argues that in the case of successful integration, public actors and agricultural cooperatives can control the way farmland is consolidated to ‘bearer farms.’ Chapter 10 analyzes the relationship between collective farms and village institutions. Once included in the regime, an individual obtains an exclusive channel to information on government policy. However, those who cannot join the network, such as entrepreneurial farms, are not privy to such advantages.
While the previous chapters focus on the mechanisms within a community, Chapter 11 presents a different view by explaining variations across Japan. This chapter also discusses the reason why a certain type of community succeeds in interpreting the state policy in a favorable manner. Part five concludes by discussing the findings of the book. The author argues that informal institutions, such as village institutions, are ‘dynamic resources’ for ‘incremental institutional change in advanced political economies’ (p. 181). The author also emphasizes that adopting a local perspective leads to a better understanding of such processes.
Through this book, the author contributes to the literature in five ways. First, this book achieves two goals, which are detailed fieldwork at the local level and theoretical contribution explaining variations. Sometimes, arguments based on detailed fieldwork result in a collection of various case studies rather than presenting a coherent discussion. This book, however, simultaneously analyzes both commonalities and differences among cases. As mentioned above, the author's argument is based on a two-layer explanation. The book combines macro-level national policy, as an overall trend of changes in Japanese agriculture, with micro-level differences in social structure at the local level. The local level organization serves as a variable that explains variations in the implementation of national-level agricultural policy. The author is thereby able to contribute to both fact-finding and theoretical improvements.
Second, this book brings social network analysis back into the study of Japanese politics. Rural communities in Japan have historically attracted the interests of scholars, especially sociologists (e.g., Fukutake, Reference Fukutake1967). Adding to recent studies in Japanese politics that have focused on social capital (e.g., Aldrich, Reference Aldrich2011; Kage, Reference Kage2011), this study sheds light on social networks with more traditional nuances in rural areas. As seen in recent political issues, such as discussions surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the divide between urban and rural areas is a significant issue shaping political debates in Japan. Understanding both rural politics at the local level and social ties in rural areas provides us with another angle on a variety of political issues in Japan such as electoral campaigns and policy implementation.
Third, this book leads us to reassess the iron triangle of Japanese agriculture, which has been used to describe the close political relationship among three actors – politicians, bureaucrats, and industry. This book delves into the tension between the national government and local actors, such as administrative offices and agricultural co-ops. Conflicts between the two have become increasingly obvious, as seen in the emergence of local parties in big cities, such as Tokyo and Osaka, and discussions between the national government and local governors on the Covid-19 pandemic. This book thereby contributes to a better understanding of the local political process.
Fourth, the depth of the fieldwork renders this book informative and rare. Reviewing the list of conducted interviews in Appendix B, we can imagine the efforts and capabilities of the author in blending into local society. Such detailed research based on interpersonal communication makes the arguments in this book more convincing and valuable. The book also serves as a record of rural life during this time.
Fifth, the author is careful about causality. By comparing Hikawa Town and Izumo City, which are adjacent to each other in a similar topographical situation but different in terms of the organization of their local agricultural regimes, the author observes the effect of differing regimes on policy implementation. Especially since the work of King et al. (Reference King, Keohane and Verba1994), qualitative research is expected to rigorously identify causal relationships. The author is able to better convince readers through the presentation of a counterfactual to Hikawa Town.
Though, as argued above, this book is an excellent contribution to the literature, possibilities exist for future development regarding four points. First, the mechanism that the author found may not have originated at the time investigated in this book. The ambiguity of the state agricultural policy has sometimes been pointed out during the postwar era. For example, the Agricultural Basic Law in 1961 is described as an ‘agricultural charter’ because the law omitted specific items and allowed other laws to determine them (Nōrinshō and Zenkoku Nōgyō Kaigisho, Reference Nōrinshō and Zenkoku Nōgyō Kaigisho1961: 43). Though the author does not focus on variations before the 1980s, it would be worthwhile to explore whether local actors' strategic use of such ambiguity is observed in other past reforms. Second, the role of politicians at the local level is not discussed in-depth in this research. The book focuses on local governments, local agricultural cooperatives, and individual farmers. At the national level, however, politicians are deemed main actors in the iron triangle of agriculture. If we are interested in local politics, examining local politicians may provide another perspective. This might also reveal potentially conflicting interests among local actors and the effects of differences in the local party system on the formation of local agricultural regimes.
Third, we may need to consider selection bias. Though the author conducted many interviews across Japan, these are not completely comprehensive. Despite being a small country composed of islands, Japan has great geographic length north to south and east to west, which makes it diverse in climate and farming styles. A different situation may occur in regions like Hokkaido where large-scale farming is mainstream, because the close-knit networks that the author observed in Hikawa Town are less easily established there. The fourth point is related to the definition of village institutions. The author intentionally adopts a vague definition of the term to capture a nuanced aspect of the rural social structure (p. 89). When considering the integration of village institutions into local agricultural regimes, we may wish to explore the distinction between the two elements and whether they exist independently.
These points for future consideration, however, show the breadth of the author's aspirations, as the book provides wide coverage on many fundamental topics related to Japanese agriculture and politics. Since it contributes to the literature on institutionalism with dense fieldwork in Japan, this book is suited for a variety of audiences, such as specialists in comparative politics, experts in Japanese politics, and the public who are interested in these topics. By reading this book, you can obtain a new perspective on comparative politics, contemporary Japanese politics, and the future of Japan.
