The Japanese economy experienced rapid development during the mid-1950s through to the early -1970s, with a compound annual average growth rate of higher than ten per cent. Although the labor productivity of the agricultural sector increased fairly sharply, the non-agricultural sectors enjoyed much higher growth rates of labor productivity during the same period of time. This resulted in big income gaps between the agricultural and non-agricultural households. To reduce such income gaps between the two sectors, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) enacted the Agricultural Basic Act in 1961 and started enforcing various policies for agriculture. These representative policy measures have been the output price-supports, in particular rice, the output-mix change, the set-asides, the input subsidies, and the research and extension (R&E) programs.
In Volume 2 the (crops-livestock) multiple-product translog variable profit function is used to quantitatively investigate the impacts of the output price-supports, the set-asides, the input subsidies, and the R&E programs on the important economic indicators from 1965-97. The most important finding based on such quantitative analyses is that the agricultural policy measures introduced by the MAFF played a vital role in restricting land transfers from small- to large-scale farms for more efficient and productive farming on larger-scale farms contrary to expectations.

By departing from conventionally analytical tools such as Cobb-Douglas and CES production functions, the author quantitatively analyses the production structure and productivity of Japanese agriculture for the second half of the 20th century. To achieve this objective the book uses newly developed analytical tools from the early-1950s through to the 1980s such as the duality theorem, flexible functional forms, and index number theories. By making full use of these newly developed analytical tools, the author offers comprehensive, consistent, integrated, and reliable empirical results for analysing the production structure and productivity of postwar Japanese agriculture.
Volume 1 utilises the crop-livestock multiple product total and variable translog cost to quantitatively assess production structure and productivity from 1957-1997. Important indicators of production are estimated for different size classes for each
year and are compared over time. Furthermore, a distinctive feature of Volume 1 is the introduction of a newly devised method for decomposing the growth rate of labor productivity. This process departs from the conventional Solow growth account method, which is not explicitly integrated with the theory of the firm.

The book uses an original language-based bilayer theory to throw light on the secretive structure of power in the Japanese Diet, its national parliament, and relates its findings to Japanese parliamentary democracy in historical perspective. In so doing, the book answers questions about the latent policymaking process of Japanese politics that resulted in a reduction of social alienation and disorganization while Japan industrialized. Industrialization significantly reduced poverty and increased the size of the middle class, enabling the nation to move towards democracy. The reader will see why socialists were so quixotically dogmatic toward conservatives to the point of absurdity during the Cold War period. Yet, they were able to form a coalition government following the end of Cold War era.

Analyses quantitatively in a comprehensive, consistent, and integrated manner the production structure and productivity of post-war Japanese agriculture for the latter half of the twentieth century, more specifically, 1957-97.

Analyzes quantitatively in a comprehensive, consistent, and integrated manner the production structure and productivity of postwar Japanese agriculture for the latter half of the 20th century, more specifically, 1957-97.

This book seeks to explain how politics actually operates in the Japanese Diet using the author's bilayer theory or dual power structure theory. It is about how politics in Japan operates behind closed doors and how laws are actually made in the Diet. While some parts of the process remain hidden-subterfuge is inherently part of politics-the author uses interviews with party officials, current and former kokkai taisaku-inkai committee members of all parties in the Diet to elucidate the process as much as possible.