Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to consider how the concept of labor force needs to be redefined by pointing out the premises and issues that Otsuki employed when he defined labor force as a source of production factor. The main results are as follows:
(1) Otsuki uses a fictitious model of a family farm economy that contributes the sources of production factors to the farm business economy. The reason he formulates the concept of labor force as a source of production factor is to regard it as negotiable, contributable goods.
(2) To regard the labor force as the equity fund of a farm business economy, however, is to ignore the labor quantity factor and to presume it has no relation to the calculation of profits and losses. Conceived at a time when labor-intensive farm management was needed in a labor abundant economy, the presumptions regarding labor quantity have yet to undergo revision. Otsuki's concept of labor force thus corresponds to the low estimation of self-supplied labor.
(3) One of the reasons he defined the concept of labor force as a source of production factor is that labor force is consumed by work and entirely restored by normal daily activities. He recognized labor force as if it were a natural phenomenon, and on the other hand he emphasized that the labor force had to be developed by providing education. As the cycle of the labor force cannot be regarded as a natural phenomenon, we conclude that it is necessary to grasp labor force as produced goods consumed in the family farm economy.
