# Foreword

The Annual Report on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas in Japan is submitted to the Diet every year under the Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Act.

At present, the restoration and reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake are the top priorities for the government. Most of the disaster-damaged areas are rural. It is important for Japan to restore and reconstruct the disaster-damaged areas, including the Tohoku region, one of Japan’s leading food supply bases, as soon as possible. In addition to earthquake and tsunami damage, the disaster triggered a nuclear power plant accident that brought the unprecedented havoc of massive radioactive contamination. Particularly, Fukushima Prefecture was seriously damaged. Prompt and thorough responses are required for the damage.

Given such a situation, this report begins with a special topic titled “A year of reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake -- Towards reconstruction steps,” describing a wide range of problems from the impacts of the earthquake-tsunami disaster and the nuclear plant accident on agriculture to changes in consumer sentiment, food industry trends and the disaster-damaged areas’ agriculture restoration and reconstruction efforts.

Through interviews with disaster-affected farmers and persons engaged in food industry, we have tried to grasp and convey the real conditions of the disaster-damaged areas.

FY2011 was the second year for the Basic Plan for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas, which was reformed in March 2010. The basic plan positioned the food, agriculture and rural area policy as one of Japan’s national strategies to make a major policy shift and create the “society where agriculture and rural areas are supported by every citizen,” based on the following background:

(1) The food supply-demand balance has grown tighter due to increasing resource and food consumption accompanying the population and economic growth in developing countries and due to the diversification of the uses of farm products as indicated by expanding biofuel production. Even in the face of these changes, Japan’s agriculture has failed to fully meet consumer and food industry needs, and the food self-sufficiency ratio has worsened.

(2) As Japan’s economic society has matured and citizens’ values and lifestyles have diversified, rural area agriculture’s multifunctional roles, including water recharging and contribution to national land conservation, have become important.

(3) On the other hand, agriculture and rural areas face tough conditions including a substantial decline in agricultural income and serious shortages of motivated farmers.

The basic plan puts forward three agriculture policy principles – backing farmers by introducing the Income Support Direct Payment Program for Farmers, switching to a production system to meet consumer needs including “high quality,” and “safety and consumer confidence,” and reviving vigorous rural areas through collaboration between primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Based on these principles, it calls for implementing various measures integrally and steadily. It aims to increase Japan’s food self-sufficiency ratio to 50% on a calorie supply basis (70% on a production value basis) in FY2020 on the precondition of stakeholders’ maximum efforts to overcome challenges.

Given that two years have passed since the Basic Plan for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas was reformed, this report verifies degrees of achievement for major policy measures provided by the basic plan. Based on the verification, this report describes efforts and their achievements over the past two years as specifically as possible.

The great earthquake-tsunami disaster has prompted citizens to once again recognize the food-supplying agriculture-forestry-fisheries sector as being very significant to their lives. We hope that this report will help citizens deepen their interest in and understanding of food, agriculture and rural areas.