The Roles of Agricultural Industries in Japan: An Economic Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the roles of agricultural industries in the Japanese national economy. This study employs Input-Output (IO) analysis as an analysis tool. More specifically, this study utilizes the parts of IO analysis, namely simple output multiplier, simple household income multiplier, index of the power of dispersion, and index of the sensitivity of dispersion as analysis apparatuses. The analysis period of this study is 1985-2005. In this study, the analyzed sectors are crop cultivation and agricultural services. The results show that, by using both multipliers, the analyzed agricultural industries did not include in the top five Japanese industrial sectors from 1985 through 2005. By using both indices, one can claim that agricultural services sector lied in quadrant III on the analysis period. Meanwhile, crop cultivation industry lied in quadrant II from 1985 through 1995 while it moved to quadrant III afterwards. Based on these quadrant positions, one can argue that the analyzed industries had weak impacts on the whole Japanese industries on the analysis period.