Japan is one of the largest importers of wheat, 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 on the exporters’
side.
