Dr. Yamashita gave a lecture on "Will TPP Cause the Fall of Japan's Powerful Agricultural Cooperatives?" at Columbia Business School.

The following is the synopsis used for PR for the event.

Dr. Yamashita will present his views on the impact of TPP on Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives (JAs), which have made agriculture one of the most protected industries in Japan. It is generally believed that Japanese agriculture requires the most major restructuring and deregulation in order to stimulate Japan's future economic growth. But JAs have always been in the way. He will cover topics that will answer questions such as: 1) Will all restructuring and delegation efforts transpire and remove JAs' political power which has hindered any agricultural policy reforms in Japan? 2) Have JAs lost their political clout to resist the initiative led by the Abe administration? 3) How would the political power of like-minded politicians from rural districts who are sympathetic to JAs influence these efforts? 4) Are there other approaches to achieve agricultural policy reform?

Presentation by Dr. Yamashita
「Will TPP Cause the Fall of Japan's Powerful Agricultural Cooperatives?」　PDF：1.2MB