This paper examines the increasingly popular chisan-chisho movement that has promoted the localization of food consumption in Japan since the late-1990s. Chisan-chisho emerged in the context of a perceived crisis in the Japanese food system, particularly the long-term decline of agriculture and rural community and more recent episodes of food scandals. Although initially started as a grassroots movement, many chisanchisho initiatives are now organized by governments and farmersÕ cooperatives. Acknowledging that the chisan-chisho movement has added some important resources and a conceptual framework, we nonetheless point out that chisan-chisho has been refashioned as a producer movement by government as well as the Japan Agricultural Cooperative, capitalizing on local foodÕs marketing appeal. Chisan-chisho to date has not been able to become a full-fledged citizen-based political mobilization nor address the issue of marginality in the food system.
I focus on the efforts to link food and agriculture in North America and Japan, and discuss what role COVID-19 can play in shifting the food system away from dependence on markets. I also examine the historical trends in the relationship between food and agriculture, and the impact that the spread of COVID-19 has had on those trends. Then, based on the experience of COVID-19, I discuss the prospects for a sustainable society after COVID-19 from the perspective of the relationship between food and agriculture.
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