Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Chapter one Introduction -- Japan's declining agricultural performance -- Productivity growth in agriculture and other sectors in international perspective -- Technological leadership and international transfer of technology -- European agriculture as a target for Japanese agriculture -- Countries selected for in-depth comparisons with Japan: the Netherlands, Taiwan and the USA -- Dutch agriculture as a technological leader in Europe -- Taiwan as a competitive leader in Asia -- The USA as a leader among land-abundant countries -- Concepts of output and productivity -- National and international prices -- Explanations for the poor performance of Japan's agriculture -- Outline of the book -- Chapter two Sectoral productivity performance in international perspective -- Experiences in agricultural development3 -- The developed countries -- The developing countries -- Agriculture and industry in international perspective -- The demand for protection -- The case of Western Europe -- The case of post-war Japan -- The role of prices -- Price level and technological change -- Price level and input use -- Price level and labour productivity: the inverse U-shape hypothesis -- Labour productivity trends in world agriculture, 1969-85 -- Growth of labour productivity by sector -- Successful agricultural and industrial performers -- Trends in terms of trade -- Share of employment in agriculture -- Causes of differences in agricultural labour productivity growth -- Non-agricultural growth and structural transformation -- Resource endowment in developing countries -- Price policies -- Conclusion -- Chapter three International comparison of agricultural productivity -- The method and the data -- Gross value added in agriculture -- Labour and land.

Productivity comparisons -- Labour productivity -- Land productivity -- Regional patterns and the technological frontier -- Sources of international productivity differences -- General level of economic development -- Diversified economy and society -- Resource endowment -- Input substitution -- Statistical test of the divergence of Japanese agriculture from the international productivity level -- Statistical test of the inverse U-shape hypothesis -- Conclusion -- Chapter four Agricultural development in Japan and the Netherlands -- General conditions, 1880-1985 -- Land and population -- General economic performance -- Foreign trade in agricultural produce -- Per capita agricultural production and self-sufficiency in food -- Long-term trends in agricultural performance, 1880-1985 -- Trends in output and input -- Trends in productivity -- Effect of price changes on productivity measurement -- Chapter five How productive is present Janpanese agriculture? In-depth comparisons of productivity in Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the USA -- Method of comparison -- Real productivity in agriculture in Japan and the Netherlands in 1975, 1980, and 1984 -- Sub-sectoral comparison -- Comparisons for some livestock products -- Dairy farming -- Intensive livestock raising -- Long-term trends in gross labour productivities in intensive livestock production -- Comparison of Japan and the Netherlands with Taiwan and the USA -- Relative price levels -- Real labour productivities -- Comparison with other studies -- National and international prices -- Growth rates and real comparison of agricultural production in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA -- Conclusion -- Chapter six The eclipse of Japanese agriculture -- Rapid industrial growth -- Post-war agricultural policies and growth of productivity -- Japan's agricultural policies -- Rice policies.

Political structure and farmers' organizations -- The role of supporting services and industries for agriculture -- Part-time farming -- Excessive use of inputs -- Over-investment in Japanese agriculture -- Technology and its effect on productivity -- Government policies to promote technology -- Labour saving technology and unique aspects of Japanese mechanization -- Lagging adjustment to new economic conditions and labour efficiency -- Farm size and land fragmentation -- Need for structural changes -- Farm size and economies of scale -- Slow structural transformation -- Conclusion -- Chapter seven Prospects for Japan's agriculture -- The economic setting -- The challenge -- Changing the institutional and political environment -- Land policies -- Political structure -- Supporting industries and services -- Chapter eight Relevance of Japan's post-war development experience for developing countries -- Appendix A Data for international comparison of growth of labour productivities used in Chapter Two -- Country classification -- Definition of sectors -- Data sources -- Appendix B Inter-country data for 1963, 1975, and 1985 used in Chapter Three -- Sources and notes -- Total production (Table B.1) -- Gross value added ratios (Table B. 1) -- Gross value added (Table B.1) -- Number of agricultural workers (Table B.2) -- Agricultural land area (Table B.2) -- Tractor horse power (Table B.3) -- Gaps of the relative price index by country from its regional optimum level (Table B.4) -- Comparison of the output data in the present and previous studies (Table B.5) -- Check of underestimation by use of FAO data (Table B.6) -- Appendix C Time-series data for Japan and the Netherlands 1880-1985 used in Chapter Four -- Data sources and notes -- Output and input data for Japan (Table C.1) -- Output and input data for the Netherlands (Table C.1).

Real value added series in alternative common prices (Table C.2) -- Appendix D Data for comparisons among Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the USA for 1975, 1980, and 1984 used in Chapter Five -- Method -- Data sources -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.