KOREASCHOLAR

In recent years, ethical consumption has been attracting attention in Japan. Ethical products cover various issues, such as protection of the global environment, sustainability of resources, and protection of producers. Because the specification of such issues is difficult, previous studies often analyzed only one phenomenon. Several studies have attempted to examine the buying behavior of consumers of organic food products, based on Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Sparks and Shepherd, 1992; Arvola et al., 2007; Chen, 2007, Lodorfos and Dennis, 2008). The TPB considers intention as a function of three principle determinants: attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Regarding ethical food consumption, moral norms are individual value judgments connected to a specific behavior and its outcome (Manstead, 1999). A comprehensive model based on ethical issues for various products is required. Prior research highlights the consensus that targeting females in ethical consumption will have a greater chance of success (Roberts, 1996; Mainieri et al., 1997; De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). We propose three hypotheses to explain gender difference in consuming ethical food products. The aim of this study is to analyze the purchase behavior of consumers of ethical food products and to examine how consumers differ by gender in terms of the ethical issues. This study adopted organic vegetables, fair trade products, products certified by the Rainforest Alliance, free-range eggs, and fish certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council as ethical food products. These food products are associated with different ethical issues, and thus, we define ethical issues as “ethical attitude” for each product. For example, the ethical attitude of free-range eggs is included in the following categories (Table 1): environment, which means the protection of the global environment; health, which refers to the health of consumers; animal, which means the welfare of animals and the sustainability of resources; and farmer/aquaculturist, which means protecting farmers or aquaculturists

• Ayano Inoue(Mejiro University, Japan)