A RICE CULTURE

 

Rice is the main food in Japan, just as bread is the main food in many western cultures. for the Japanese, rice is more than rice. The Japanese word for cooked rice, gohan, is also the word for meal. Rice straw, or wara, has been used for thousands of years to make clothing, mats, and household items. Rice planting is a cultural and religious event.

The United States is very efficient in producing food, including rice. U.S rice farms often cover many square miles. They use highly mechanized planting and harvesting methods.  Japanese rice farms are small. They average only 1.5 acres. Countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have low labor costs. They are major exporters of rice.

Japanese consumers pay up to seven times as much for rice as U.S . consumers do. Japanese consumers pa such a high price because of Japanese government policies. Japan pays almost 2 billion $ a year to support rice farmers. In addition, Japan imposes a 700 percent tariff(tax on imported goods) to increase imported rice prices to the same level as domestic rice prices. Japanese rice growers claim that Japanese rice is superior to all imported rice. The farmers lobby in japan is very powerful in Japanese policies. It is difficult for foreign rice growers to market their products in Japan.

Japan views foreign rice as being inferior, and foreign rice cannot be sold at prices that reflects its true cost of production.

Economic  theory shows that countries gain from free trade. However, governments try justify their reasons for limiting free trade between countries. International agreements have been put in place companies to engage in international marketing to develop, promote, and sell their products based on their competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is something a company does better, faster, or cheaper than other companies do.

 

  THEORY OF COMPARATIVE  ADVANTAGE

Absolute advantage means that a country can produce more units of a product at a lower cost using fewer resources than other countries. For example the United States has an absolute advantage over Japan in rice and cotton production.

This means that the United States can produce much more rice and cotton at a lower cost per unit than Japan. These absolute advantage do not mean that the U.S. should be the sole producer of both products. Japan can have a comparative advantage in producing for one of the products. The law of comparative advantage states that a country should specialize in the production of a product that it can produce relatively better, or more efficiency than other country. For example rice production makes better use of Japan’s resources than cotton production. Cotton production makes better use of the United States resources than rice production. Thus Japan is relatively more efficient than the United States is in producing rice, and the United States is relatively more efficient than Japan is in producing cotton.

An opportunity cost is the value of what is given up in producing one product when another product is produced. The United States can produce both more cotton and rice than Japan, but it has a different opportunity cost tradeoff. For example Japan is more efficient in producing rice over cotton.

 ADAPTED FROM :    KLEINDEL

حسن محمدلو