What is ‘organic’? Politics of organic agriculture standard and certification in Japanese organic agriculture sector

This research investigates organic agriculture development in Japan through an analyti-cal lens of the conventionalization and bifurcation theories. Organic farming is perceived as an alternative to industrial agriculture. However, it is argued that the farming is penetrated by logic of capital; then, structure of organic farming is getting closer to that of industrial agriculture. In the process, ideology-oriented organic food producers are marginalized while market-oriented producers benefit. These phenomena are called the conventionalization and bifurcation. There already conducted a number of case studies which examined the phenom-ena. In Japan, prior literatures reported signs of industrialization of Japanese organic agricul-ture sector; however, researches which employed the theories as analytical lens was not found. Thus, this research investigates Japanese case through the analytical lens of the conventionalization and bifurcation. In the chapter of theoretical framework, dimensions and factors of these phenomena are summarized from prior literatures to make focus of this research on the dimensions and factors clear. The factor that is focused in this research is public policies by the Japanese government. Then, Japanese organic agriculture development and the public policies are introduced in the chapter of findings. In following chapter of analysis, influence of the policies on the current structure of Japanese organic agriculture sector is investigated. This analysis is linked to look into the degree of conventionalization in Japan. As a result, this research finds out possibility of non-certified/small scale organic farmers’ thriving within proceeding capital penetration in the Japanese organic agriculture sector. In addition to this, this case study of Japan suggests to incorporate international politics of organic agriculture standard and certification into not only study of the Global South but of the Global North.