By Tommy Hamamoto, USGC Director in Japan

Endorsed by the U.S. Grains Council, Hog Lift and Corn from America: How the Grain Trade Built U.S.-Japan Ties was written by agricultural economist Professor Seiji Mitsuishi and has recently been translated into English. The book details the history of the Japanese feed industry after the Hog Lift, a momentous phase in Japan’s livestock sector after the 1959 typhoons that laid ground for a strong U.S.-Japan trade partnership.

Mitsuishi uses his personal experience of the March 2011 earthquake as a backdrop to analyze Japan’s national food chain system, tracing its roots back to U.S. corn. Following his time as a grain trader in the United States, Mitsuishi recounts the history of the U.S. corn trade and the complicated systems of corn production, handling and distribution.

The book provides a framework to illustrate that healthy trade can establish food security. The Council’s Japan office distributed the Japanese version of Hog Lift and Corn from America at the Food 2040 reception in Tokyo in April. Access to the English translation is available here on the Council’s Japan website.