	japan study urges foreign access to farm markets japan should increase foreign access to its farm products market while encouraging further development of domestic agriculture a government report said the white paper on agriculture for the year ended march said active participation in writing world farm trade rules at the next round of general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt talks will help prepare japan to improve access agriculture ministry sources said the paper marked an easing in japan s tough position on agricultural imports which stressed the need for strict controls on some products to maintain self sufficiency in food japan now produces only pct of its annual  needs down from pct some years ago official figures show the paper said japanese agriculture has been slow to improve productivity and demand supply imbalances the relative shortage of farmland in japan is mainly responsible for higher domestic prices it said the strong yen has meant lower input material prices but has also resulted in higher agricultural imports which has worsened working conditions among part time farmers the paper said this could make it difficult to improve the industry s structure the paper said to solve these problems and to reduce farm product prices to more reasonable levels japan should try to restructure the the agricultural sector to improve productivity and make it self supporting it said reuter 
