The objective of this paper is to shed empirical light on spatial characteristics of land fragmentation (LF) and the nexus between LF and the geographical or social conditions of farmers. We collected data from the “Agricultural Land Information System,” cadastral data from three cities in Hyogo Prefecture, and “Plot Polygon” data from MAFF. We then processed these data and calculated LF indices that contain the average plot size, Simpson index, maximum distance between plots, and standard distance between plots. Using LF indices, we firstly examined the spatial autocorrelation of LF using Moran’s I. In addition, we applied the spatial autoregressive model to investigate the correlation between LF and rural community conditions. The main results of our analysis are as follows. Firstly, the calculated Moran’s I showed that all LF indices have spatial autocorrelation. This implies that there were strategic interactions between farmers at the time of farmland accumulation. Secondly, spatial econometric analysis considering autocorrelation of LF has revealed that geographical conditions such as the steepness of land and average plot size significantly correlated to LF. On the other hand, we could find little evidence of correlations between LF and social conditions such as the number of farmers or the number of meetings in rural communities.
