This document discusses Japan's agricultural and rural development policies, specifically the food industry cluster policy and sixth industrialization policy. It provides background on challenges facing Japan's agricultural sector like declining production and aging farmers. The food industry cluster policy was introduced in 2005 to promote innovation and job creation in rural areas but had little effect, so it became the sixth industrialization policy in 2010. This policy aims to create value chains through collaboration between agricultural producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers by exchanging knowledge and new combinations of production, processing, distribution and consumer needs. It is supported by government investment funds that provide capital to new joint ventures between the private sector and agricultural industries.