2026 Volume 64 Issue 1 Pages 22-31
Farm management with hired labor has developed despite the current decline in Japanese agriculture. The labor market has changed since the 2010s, particularly in non-seniority-based expansion and low-wage employment among young and middle-aged men, referred to as “employment deterioration.” This study clarifies how these changes have influenced farm management development with hired labor, focusing on resource constraints, such as the labor force and farmland. Employment deterioration creates a relative work advantage in the agriculture sector by lowering wage expectations and fosters a management mindset among certain farmers. However, a dual income is necessary in low-income households, which induces labor supply. Thus, hiring opportunities at low wages are offered in farm management with hired labor. In addition, low-income households often reduce their farm size or retire from their own farm because they are required to work full-time by their employers. Therefore, farmland is supplied to farm management with hired labor. As a result, employment deterioration has dual effects: (1) It encourages upward development among farmers with a management mindset and makes them farm managers with hired labor. (2) It causes widespread downward development among low-income households by retiring from their own farm.
