Lily Kiminami

Economic growth and food policy in urban China

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to clarify the influence that economic growth gives to the food consumption in urban China by taking income gap into consideration. It also proposes an appropriate food policy corresponding to the consumers’ diversified needs for food under the process of economic growth. Design/methodology/approach - Various kinds of methodologies are employed such as the interview analysis, food tasting investigation, group discussion, retail price investigation and the questionnaire survey, etc. for the case study from Shanghai. Findings - Food policy for China in the current stage should be considered to supply food with a constant quality to the poorest segment of the population at cheap price and to correspond to the diversified needs of the general public for food (including high quality and safety intention of top-tier population). Originality/value - Not only the existence of income gap but also the realities of the difference in the food consumption among the poorest segment, the general public and the rich layer of the population are clarified. The food policy which attempts to correspond to the diversified needs for food and to realize a sustainable development of the society is proposed.

Promotion of dairy farming and poverty reduction in Inner Mongolia, China

Purpose - The purposes of this paper are to examine the actual conditions of the problems of poverty in rural areas in Inner Mongolia, to clarify the problems involved in the measure to fight poverty through promotion of dairy farming and to propose policies for future measures to fight poverty. Design/methodology/approach - Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are employed, such as the estimation of production functions of agriculture in Inner Mongolia over the period 1998-2004, the interview analysis and questionnaire survey for case studies. The different roles that three models play in poverty reduction such as the government assistant dairy farming, the enterprise entry dairy farming, and the multiple management dairy farming are discussed. Findings - The paper confirms the growth of the corporate-participating dairy farming contributes significantly to the development of the regions. It also clarifies the problem of the government-aided dairy farming with its low profitability caused by insufficient input of fodder and the necessity to select management policies according to the natural conditions and resources available in individual regions, such as a shift toward recycling-oriented beef cattle management in multiple dairy farming. Originality/value - The paper adds insight into the promotion of dairy farming and poverty reduction in Inner Mongolia.

Food Security and Industrial Clustering in Northeast Asia

1 Food Security and Collaborative Advantage: Scoping the scene (Kiminami, Lily).- Part I Food Security from the Asian Perspective.- 2 Defining Japans Food Security in East Asia: From the perspectives of the distribution revolution, environmental degradation, and international cooperation (Hara, Yonosuke).- 3 The Current Position and Future Direction of Agriculture in Northeast Asia (Shogenji, Shin-ichi).- 4 Analysis of Chinas Food Supply and Demand Balance and Food Security (Chen, Yongfu and Nie, Fengying).- 5 Koreas Food Security Schemes (Lee, Jaehyeon).- Part II Food Clustering in Northeast Asia.- 6 The Food System based on Agriculture: Food collaboration (Saito, Osamu).- 7 The Network Structure of a Soybean Cluster in Hokkaido (Morishima, Teruya).- 8 Competitive Advantages of Green Tea Clusters in Japan (Akune, Yuko).- 9 Food and Health-Related Industry Clustering in Niigata Prefecture:Empirical analysis on the cognitive aspects of corporations (Kiminami, Lily and Furuzawa, Shinichi).- 10 Agricultural Industry Clusters in China (Kiminami, Lily and Kiminami, Akira).- 11 Industrial Agglomeration of the Food Industry in China: An analysis of data by province(Yagi, Hironori).- 12 The Agricultural Industrialization of Chinas Heilongjiang Province (Jiao, Jiang).- 13 Agricultural Production and Related Business by Public Firms: A case study on Xinhua Farm, Heilongjiang (Yagi, Hironri and Zhu, Yonghao).- 14 Promotion Policies for Food Industry Cluster in Korea (Lee, Byung-Oh).- 15 The Trends and Potential for Food Industry Clusters in Korea (Lee, Jaehyeon).- 16 The Promotion of and Challenges for the Agricultural Senary Industrialization Policy in the Republic of Korea(Lee, Youkyung).- Part III Food Clustering in EU and North America.- 17 Cluster Initiatives in Eastern Poland: Good practices in agriculture and food-processing industry(Bojar, Ewa, Bojar, Matylda and Bojar, Wiktor).- 18 Main Factors Affecting Food Industry Clustering in France (Ben Arfa, Nejla, and Daniel, Karine).- 19 Industrial Cluster Analysis, Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development(Stough, Roger R. and Yu, Junbo).

Rural and Agriculture Development in Regional Science

This paper discussed the trends and the outlook of the study of rural and agriculture development in regional science. Firstly, the relationships between regional science, area study, and regional economic development are clarified. Secondly, the definition, purpose, and approach of rural and agriculture development are described. Thirdly, the analytical approaches toward rural and agriculture development issues are introduced with some comments on the roles of entrepreneurs and knowledge creation in innovation. Fourthly, the pioneering studies in rural and agriculture development in Japan based on regional science and their development to new theories are evaluated. Finally, the theoretical framework of a new approach of strategic development for regional agriculture is introduced by combing synthetically conventional urban planning, community development, strategic marketing planning, and industrial cluster strategy based on collaborative advantage. In addition, future prospects in rural and agriculture development studies are recommended such as the issues of regional heterogeneity, rural-urban partnerships, creating more effective models for rural and agriculture development, perceived agriculture and rural areas, etc. Furtherly, the cognitive changes toward agriculture and rural area from regarding them as an ailing industry and a conservative and closed society to a growth industry and an open “space” to create knowledge and innovation are thought to be urgent in Asia.

Food and Health-Related Industry Clustering in Niigata Prefecture

This study aims to clarify empirically the policy issues for regional innovation focusing on the “health-related industry cluster” in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. More specifically, it clarifies the situation of the “health-related industry cluster” and the impacts of spatiality of knowledge flow on the regional innovation system based on an interview survey of the intermediate organizations and a questionnaire investigation targeting the members of the cluster. Additionally, it identifies the relationship between inter-firm cognitive distance and innovation creation based on the analysis of annual security reports of three leading companies in the cluster using text mining method. Finally, it draws policy implications for the strategy of regional innovation based on the analytical results and points out the tasks for future research.

Agricultural Industry Clusters in China

The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of clustering in the development of agriculture and rural communities in China. First, case studies are used to clarify issues involving cluster initiatives and business environments. The second method consists of quantitatively analyzing the relationship between business collaborations among companies and economic performance. The results of the analyses of agricultural clusters in China in this study suggest that clusters do achieve certain positive results in the way of development in the agricultural sector and rural communities. However, it also suggests that a shift from intra-industry to inter-industry business collaboration will be necessary for the sustained development of those clusters.

Food Security and Collaborative Advantage: Scoping the Scene

Generally, the food we eat today has to travel a long distance “from farm to table”. As for the agents connected with food, the roles that the distribution and processing industries play are growing, in addition to those of farmers and consumers. Moreover, since food production is based on biological production and located in rural areas, it is strongly subject to the influence of the natural environment, and its relationship with the social and economic background of farm villages is also important. Therefore, a perspective on the “food system”, which covers problems involving foodstuffs such as the flow of food and the environment surrounding it, is needed.