Multi-Level Governance of Agricultural Land in Japan: Farmers’ Perspectives and Responses to Farmland Banking

This dissertation examines the emergence and implementation of a new intermediary mechanism of farmland tenancy in Japan with a focus on farmers’ perspectives. Japan’s government introduced the Farmland Bank (FB) program in 2014 in an attempt to avoid further farmland abandonment and revitalize the farming industry. By design, the program gives more power to prefectural authorities to accommodate new actors and resources in tenancy arrangements even without farmland owners’ consent so as to expedite farmland aggregation and generate better economies of scale. This is a major turning point since the postwar agrarian reform where owners have been given a primary decision-making role in private farmland use. The research draws on semi-structured interviews with farmers, government officials and experts, which were conducted intermittently between 2016 and 2018. By taking a multi-level governance approach, the study shows a change in the farmland governance model from the centralized control of individual property to the decentralized, multi-level coordination for collective tenancy arrangements, to which farmers actively contributed along with the interlocking institutional transitions of farming families and villages. With the decline in the life security function of farmland, they have increasingly disengaged from farming and allowed for political and conceptual shifts of farmland from owner-oriented to user-driven and from family property to the commons of the society. The study finds that despite a massive budget injection, the FB program has only marginally facilitated farmland aggregation. Yet, the case study of two communities reveals that the program has been driving a ‘soft’ coercion of farmers’ land-use practices via economic rationality. Moreover, it has disconnected owners from farmland but failed to enshrine tenants’ commitment to long-term farmland management. Complementary attention to subjective, intangible and cultural aspects of farmland would help to avoid possible one-time profit seeking land-use

Fostering cooperation between farmers and public and private actors to expand environmentally friendly rice cultivation: intermediary functions and farmers’ perspectives

This study investigates the intermediary functions and the farmers’ perspectives in the development and implementation of agri-environmental schemes in Shiga Prefecture of Japan by employing the innovation journey analysis and the statistical analysis. The innovation journey analysis demonstrates that the prefectural government served as an ‘innovation intermediary’ to: (1) provide a clear vision of sustainable agriculture for farmers and other actors, (2) create and reinforce both technological and market niches and (3) develop actor networks involving local actors. It also identifies the following roles of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JAs) and the specialist wholesaler as innovation intermediaries to: (1) develop new farming materials such as fertilizers, (2) translate and deliver practical farming knowledge for farmers and (3) establish the market of environmental-friendly rice. Statistical analysis uncovers that farmers more appreciated the supports from the JAs than those from other intermediaries to participate in the schemes. Complemented by the innovation journey analysis, our findings suggest that the keys to increasing farmers’ participation in the schemes include a clear vision and economic incentives for farmers as well as the coordination among intermediaries who have different expertise

Implications of Systemic Inflammation and Periodontitis for Major Depression

Increasing evidence suggests that infection and persistent low-grade inflammation in peripheral tissues are important pathogenic factors in major depression. Major depression is frequently comorbid with systemic inflammatory diseases/conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, allergies of different types, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic liver disease, diabetes, and cancer, in which pro-inflammatory cytokines are overexpressed. A number of animal studies demonstrate that systemic inflammation induced by peripheral administration of lipopolysaccharide increases the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in both the periphery and brain and causes abnormal behavior similar to major depression. Systemic inflammation can cause an increase in CNS levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines associated with glial activation, namely, neuroinflammation, through several postulated pathways. Such neuroinflammation can in turn induce depressive moods and behavioral changes by affecting brain functions relevant to major depression, especially neurotransmitter metabolism. Although various clinical studies imply a causal relationship between periodontitis, which is one of the most common chronic inflammatory disorders in adults, and major depression, the notion that periodontitis is a risk factor for major depression is still unproven. Additional population-based cohort studies or prospective clinical studies on the relationship between periodontitis and major depression are needed to substantiate the causal link of periodontitis to major depression. If such a link is established, periodontitis may be a modifiable risk factor for major depression by simple preventive oral treatment

The Possible Causal Link of Periodontitis to Neuropsychiatric Disorders: More Than Psychosocial Mechanisms

Increasing evidence implies a possible causal link between periodontitis and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and major depression (MD). A possible mechanism underlying such a link can be explained by neuroinflammation induced by chronic systemic inflammation. This review article focuses on an overview of the biological and epidemiological evidence for a feasible causal link of periodontitis to neuropsychiatric disorders, including AD, MD, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia, as well as the neurological event, ischemic stroke. If there is such a link, a broad spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders associated with neuroinflammation could be preventable and modifiable by simple daily dealings for oral hygiene. However, the notion that periodontitis is a risk factor for neuropsychiatric disorders remains to be effectively substantiated

Disentangling the practice of landscape approaches: a Q-method analysis on experiences in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes

Gefördert im Rahmen des Projekts DEA