durf.org

A quick glance at ths MOFA website shows that free trade agreements and economic partnership agreements are definitely on the diplomatic agenda. And the government is aware that this might mean some pain for certain parts of the domestic economy, even, as seen in this 2002 strategy summary:

Japan cannot secure the advantages of FTAs without enduring some pain arising from the opening of its markets, but this should be regarded as a process that is necessary for raising the level of Japan's industrial structures. Unavoidable issues will emerge concerning various areas of regulatory control, including movement of natural persons, as well as the opening of markets and the implementation of structural reforms in the agricultural sector. With due respect for political sensitivities, unless we take a stance linking FTAs to economic reforms in Japan, we will not succeed in making them a means of improving the international competitiveness of Japan as a whole.

Unfortunately, that "due respect for political sensitivities" seems to be an awful lot of long-lasting respect. Here's an article describing YADWTOR (yet another damning WTO report) on the farm subsidies situation: "Japan's farming is protected despite free trade stance—WTO."

The WTO's regular Trade Policy Review of Japan said the overall level of government assistance for agriculture was "well above" the average for industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). . . .

Japanese authorities paid out almost as much to the farming industry as the sector contributed to the economy, according the report.

Payments to farming were equivalent to 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004, compared to agriculture's 1.4 percent share of GDP.

Hardly surprising that Japan has seen the most progress on the FTA front with partners like Singapore, which don't grow anything to eat.

(Of course this protectionism is common to all industrialized countries with an ag sector. This post has links to some great photos of mountains of subsidized corn in the American midwest. Perhaps that problem goes away when we start turning it all into alternative fuel? Or selling it to Mexicans for use in expensive tortillas?)

On the milk front, after the government throws money at dairy farmers to raise lots of cows and produce lots of the white stuff, there was a huge surplus that required the destruction of a thousand tons of it in 2006. This was paired on the TV reports with images of tractors plowing under fields of hakusai (bok choy, Chinese cabbage, whatever) because prices were too low, and those poor farmers weren't going to make money on the deal. Then a month later there was a huge shortage of the very same crop. Um, oops. Anyway, to avoid the wanton destruction of cow-juice in the future, the Abashiri Beer brewery in Hokkaido has announced its new product: Bilk! It's beer, it's milk. Bilk. The name fits, somehow, from the perspective of a Tokyo taxpayer. (Reported at Japan Probe, among other places.)

EDIT: Yowza, the brewery in question also has Hotate Draft, which is of course made with 5% dried scallop meat and water pulled up from the depths of the ocean. I need to get up there and see what other madness takes place in that beer joint.