Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Japan is one of the largest importers of wheat in the world, with imports originating from three countries, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Australia, Canada, and Japan all use a government single-desk agency to control wheat trade. Many previous studies on competition in the world grain trade have argued the market is imperfectly competitive, and they often point to the Japanese market. We study the Japanese wheat import market for this reason, but find no compelling evidence of imperfect competition.