Japan's agricultural imports (over $60 billion in 2011) make it
the world's third-largest importer, after the United States and the
European Union (EU). Based on total calories consumed, Japan
imports about 60 percent of its food each year. Japan is the
fourth-largest market for U.S. agriculture, accounting for about $14 billion 
in U.S. exports in 2011. The United
States is the leading agricultural supplier to Japan. Imports from
the United States (almost $17 billion, including shipping costs)
represent over one-fourth of Japan's total agricultural imports.
ASEAN, China and the EU-27 are the next-largest suppliers.
Together, they supplied 31 percent of imports in 1994 and 39
percent in 2011, after peaking at 41 percent in 2006. Japan's
agricultural exports in 2011 exceeded $3 billion. U.S. agricultural
imports from Japan exceeded $580 million in 2011.
Meats are the largest component of Japan's agricultural
imports-about 20 percent in recent years. Japan imports large
quantities of pork, beef, and poultry meat. Based on the value of
imports, Japan is the largest meat-importing country in the world.
Because Japan allows frozen and chilled beef and pork to enter only
from countries free of foot-and-mouth disease, the number of
countries exporting such meat to Japan is small. In 2004 and 2005,
Japan's ban on beef imports from the United States and Canada
(because of fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE)
essentially restricted beef trade to Australia and New Zealand (see
Beef Imports in the Issues and Analysis chapter).
Import barriers benefit Japanese farmers, especially those
producing rice, milk for manufacturing, sugar beets and sugarcane,
and wheat. Japan maintains tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for some
commodities, including:
- Rice and rice flour,
- Wheat and wheat flour, and
- Butter and milk powder.
Imports outside the TRQs face high tariffs. Within some of the
quotas, government-owned corporations have the sole right to
import, and the imported commodities are resold into Japan's market
with a high markup in price.
Japan's border policies also protect certain food processing
industries. Strict government control over wheat, rice, dairy, and
sugar products encourages processing of foods made from those
commodities in Japan. Tariffs on vegetable oils make crushing
margins high enough to sustain Japan's soybean and canola crushing
industry. Despite the protection of flour milling, sugar refining,
and butter and milk powder production, Japan's imports of processed
foods and beverages are almost $7 billion.
For more information on trade topics, see the Readings page.