***** Japan is slightly smaller than California, but its population of nearly 127 million people is more than four times larger. More than two-thirds of its land area is mountainous, with minimal adaptability for agricultural production. This means that nearly all of Japan's population is located on 30 percent of the land area, sharing this scarce resource with commercial, industrial and agricultural activities.
Furthermore, the farms are small. At the end of World War II, the Occupation Forces and the Japanese government worked together to transfer ownership of approximately 5 million acres of Japan's agricultural land from non-farming landlords to the former peasant tenants. This reorganization of Japanese agriculture created, with the existing farmer-owned land, over 6 million small farms. This transfer was designed to significantly increase food production and to prevent the emerging Japan Communist Party from organizing dissatisfied and militant peasant tenants. Both objectives were achieved. Now, nearly 50 years later, farm numbers have decreased to 3.7 million, while farm size has increased only slightly, averaging approximately 3.25 acres.
Purchasing land for expansion is impossible in most cases. Farmers are very reluctant to sell their land because this ends long family traditions and eliminates the next generation's ability to farm, and because they feel their land will continue to increase in value. Land rental arrangements are currently the only feasible method for farm expansion.
A major challenge facing Japan's agriculture is the aging of its farmers. Today, over half of Japan's farmers are 60 years of age or older. The country's agriculture is labor intensive and human productivity continues to decline as farmers grow older. For example, some vegetable farmers have stopped growing crops like watermelons and pumpkins because of the strength required to harvest and handle these heavy crops.
The farm work force is supplied primarily by family members, but last year [1994] only 1,600 young people entered full-time employment on Japan's 3.7 million farms. Young people prefer to move to cities and work in less physically demanding and more lucrative jobs. Since 88 percent of male farmers also work in off-the-farm jobs, women are depended upon to make a significant contribution of the agricultural labor force. It is difficult for a young farmer looking for a wife to find a woman interested in the rigorous labor of farm life. Some are marrying women from other Asian countries who are willing to work on farms. It is also difficult to hire a non-family member to work on the farms because most prefer to work in a more industrialized occupation.
<http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu/pubs/SFNews/archive/95112.htm> *****
See, also, _Statistical Handbook of Japan 2001_, Chapter 5 "Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries," <http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c05cont.htm>.
***** By one estimate, agricultural protectionism costs Japanese consumers, overwhelmingly city dwellers, about $60 billion in extra food costs. Digging deeper, Japanese taxpayers pay an additional $30 billion in government subsidies to farmers.
Despite this largesse, full-time farmers, who made up 25 percent of the nation's work force in 1960, account for just 5 percent today. These days, the overwhelming majority are weekend farmers, who put in enough work to eke out the $1,100 in produce needed to maintain the low-tax farm status for their land.
But with Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party dependent on rural votes for its survival, the subsidies and protections roll on.
<http://www.globalaging.org/rural_aging/world/orangefarmers.htm> *****
Land reforms, agricultural subsidies, etc. slowed the pace of proletarianization in Japan; still and all, the proportion of full-time farmers in the labor force in Japan is now only slightly higher than those in the US and the UK. Agriculture accounts for 2% of Japan's GDP. Japan is the largest importer of food in the world, and it's also the largest consumer of US agricultural products; Japan relies on food imports for about 60% of its caloric intake. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>