抄録
For making competitive and sustainable farm businesses, it is necessary to continuously acquire new laborers and to develop their capabilities through effective human resource management (HRM). However, Japanese agriculture is facing a shrinking and aging labor force and a decrease in the number of new farmers. However, the number of employed farmers, such as employees in agricultural corporations, is increasing, and many of these employed farmers are relatively young and from non-farm households. Therefore, strategies to keep newly employed farmers in the agricultural sector are necessary in order to solve labor problems. In addition, the mechanisms of facilitating human resources that increases the competitiveness of Japanese agriculture and make it sustainable need to be clarified as well. Nevertheless, human resource development in this context means not only having employees engaged in farming, but also finding ways to develop their individual capabilities, and helping them become farm managers through training and experience.
This study sets the following three research objectives in order to clarify the problem of HRM using a questionnaire survey conducted by the National Chamber of Agriculture.
First, we statistically clarify the characteristics of employees and the HRM of agricultural corporations. Secondarily, we estimate a model which explains the relationship between employees' turnover rate and the HRM of agricultural corporations. Thirdly, we derive some policy implications. The following major findings were obtained.
Although the improvement of HRM has the potential to decrease employee turnover rates in agricultural corporations, the existing HRM in agricultural corporations in Japan is effective in terms of the government-dependent acquisition of employees and the training of employees to do simple tasks. HRM is less effective in providing training so that employees are capable of working at management positions and taking on diverse kinds of work. Therefore in order to increase the competitiveness of the Japanese agricultural sector and make it sustainable, a priority should be placed in HRM on training managers as well as on bestowing diverse skills.
