Last week Kyodo News conducted a survey on the public's understanding of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Japan is thinking of joining. The TPP basically constitutes a free-trade zone among member countries in the Pacific rim region, including the United States, but right now it is still in the negotiation phase, so the immediate question has been: Should Japan take part in the negotiations?

According to the survey's results, 81 percent of the respondents said the government has not explained the TPP well or at all. And when asked if they themselves support Japan's participation in the partnership, the results point to uncertainty: 39 percent "Yes," 36 percent "No" and 25 percent "Not sure." The survey didn't ask whether the public felt the media was doing its part in explaining the pact, but based on their answers it's easy to see what people think. Of those who "support" Japan's participation, 68 percent gave as one of their reasons the notion that free trade should be encouraged. Of those who are against participation, 65 percent said it's because it will harm Japanese agriculture.

These two rationales represent the main opposing points put across in media coverage — farmers versus exporters. To many people, agriculture is the soul of Japan and is being destroyed by the mercenary impulses of big business. Others see the farm sector as moribund, inefficient and an obstacle to true economic progress, which entails greater engagement with the world. Editorially, the former view is encapsulated in a recent piece by senior Mainichi Shimbun writer Takao Yamada, who supports farmers as not only suppliers of food but guardians of the land, rejecting the "disposable consumer culture" that Yamada believes the TPP represents; while the latter opinion is summed up neatly by the Mainichi's own editors, who believe Japan's participation in the TPP is "indispensable for economic growth" and will "in fact strengthen the foundations of domestic agriculture."