In recent years there has been enormous interest in the economic rise of East Asia. However, little attention has been paid to the agricultural sector helping to underpin that industrial and commercial development. Agriculture has now become the focus of increasingly bitter economic disputes, especially over protection and the use of import tariffs. This new study describes and analyses agriculture's contribution to the 'East Asian model' of development and the reasons behind the dramatic rise in agricultural protection. The authors employ case studies from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea that cover the decades of rapid economic growth and industrialisation, as well as the more recent period of 'agricultural adjustment'. A comparative framework is used to highlight both the common characteristics of agriculture's role in the region's development, and particular features of the political economy of agriculture in each country, against the background of rapid economic and political change. Agriculture and East Asian Development provides the basis for an understanding of the historical background and future trends in the economics and politics of the region's agriculture, strategic and environmental issues raised by agriculture's changing role in the economy and society remain key areas of debate and conflict.