Japan
The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.4% of the total country's GDP. Only 12% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Due to this lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an overall agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than cultivated.
Japanese asset price bubble
In the 1980s, local government imposed a tax on the market price land. Since the valuations did not rise in tandem with the actual rising market price, the effective property tax regressed over the time. As a result, the Greater Tokyo area dropped to 0.06% of the market price. As the land price escalated much quicker than the tax rate, most Japanese considered land as an asset rather than for productive purposes. Strong expectations that land prices were likely to increase, coupled with minimal property taxes, meant it made more sense to speculate on the land price than to fully utilize the land for production purposes.