Full Details

Friday, October 28

Globalization, Demographic Change, and Institutional Reform: The Case of Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives
Time:
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Presenter:
Patricia Maclachlan
Location:
4130 Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center and International Week

Patricia L. MacLachlan, Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Kay Shimizu, Research Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), the country's massive - and notoriously conservative - network of farm organizations, is experiencing some surprising changes. Against a backdrop of graduate market openings and severe demographic pressures, a small but growing number of coops at the local level are defying tradition and introducing market-oriented reforms to their governance structures and business strategies. Other coops, however, remain largely unchanged, while JA's national leadership has struggled hard to preserve the status quo. How can we explain these varying rates of innovation? To answer this question, we propose a model of institutional change that sheds new light on both Japan's shifting agricultural landscape and the methodologies of institutional analysis.

**Collect a QR code at this event to be eligible for the International Week Contest.

Presented by the Asian Studies Center University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh with support from the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Mitsubishi Endowments.