Dan Zheng

Dan Zheng

June 30, 2026

Policy and institutional frameworks, Distribution structures, Consumer inertia.

Japan is a long and narrow country with a climate ranging from subarctic to subtropical—environmental conditions favourable to vegetable diversity in theory. However, at the retail level, a paradox of vegetable diversity exists in Japan—“limited variety, low vegetable per capita consumption, and prices with sharp spikes”. It deconstructs vegetable diversity into biological diversity and market product diversity, takes a big perspective that integrates institutional analysis, distribution economics, and the food consumption cultural inertia to systematically expose three real reasons: the price stabilization system of “designated vegetables + specific vegetables” locks over 70% of agricultural land to 49 “policy varieties” through subsidy thresholds and area entrance restrictions in a way, resulting in “institutional homogeneity” at the production level; a vertical monopoly structure centered on the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zen-Noh) at the center suppresses variety diversification into a distribution structure with uniform specifications through rigorous grading standards and decent settling methods; A “white rice-centered” dietary pattern dating back to the Edo period, accompanied by a certain food culture and consumer inertia modes that take safety, reassurance, perfect appearance, matching seasons into consideration, collectively put the Japanese vegetable system at a low-level equilibrium trap spanning “production–distribution–consumption”, resulting in a paradox of vegetable supply diversity.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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