抄録
In this paper, an attempt is made to understand the economic mechanism of the decline of soybean production after the year of 1955. In order to approach this problem, firstly the character and the reason of existence of the traditional soybean production are investigated. Then, it is analysed why this soybean production has declined rapidly during the process of Japanese high economic growth since 1955. During this period, soybean was liberalized and the socio-economic environment of rural and agricultural structure changed rapidly. Based on these understandings, a response function of soybean acreage is estimated, then the contribution of the factors which have declined the soybean production are measured.
The results obtained are as follows; The decline of the soybean production is not caused by the fall of the relative price of soybean, but by the decreaee of the relative profitability, mainly, due to the rise of rural wage and the delay of technological inprovement on soybean production etc. on the base of land-using and labor saving character of soybean.
