The Philosophy of Women's Farming and Practice

A Case Study of the Women in the Farmer's Market System

Abstract

One of the most outstanding features of recent Japanese agriculture is that so many women are launching careers in farm management as independent farm managers. In spite of the rapid increase in the number of female farm managers, most studies on Japanese agriculture deal only with farms run by male managers.
This paper will thus investigate the nature of farming managed by women. There are two objectives in this paper. One is to highlight women's farming philosophies. The other is to examine the influence of women's philosophy on their family and rural society.
In order to consider the farming philosophy characteristic to female managers, a unique marketing system organized by farmers in Shiga prefecture in Japan will be highlighted in this paper. In addition, Inamoto's four categories of farming philosophy will be introduced as a conceptual device to deal with female farm management.
According to the result of analysis, farm management by women can broadly be classified into four types. In two of the categories, female managers run their farm independently without any influence from their husband. This fact leads to an insight, as discussed in the paper, that women's farming philosophy consists of adequate hospitality and the ideas which enrich their daily lives.