Abstract
In the previous study an attempt was made to analyze how the productivity of wet paddy in Japan, while showing different regional trends, was developed in the 76-year period from 1883 to 1959. The study reveals that the process of such development, taking into account some regional features, consists of 13 epochs.
The main theme of the present study is to classify regional types according to the trends of development in these 13 epochs.
Classification has been based both on upward or downward trends of development in each epoch (table 3 and figure 1) and on the quantum of increase in each epoch (table 4).
The results thus obtained are as follows;
Type A……………Kyushu type Type F………………………Tozan type
Type B…………… Chugoku-Shikoku type Type G………………………Hokuriku type
Type C……………Central Japan type Type H………………………Kanto type
Type D……………Southern Tohoku type Type I………………………Kinki type
Type E……………Northern Tohoku type
An analysis of the trends of development by regional types makes it possible to classify into two broad groups. One is types A and C which showed upward trends to up the 1933-37 epoch but became stagnant thereatfer. The other is types D and F which continued upward trends even after the 1933-37 epoch.
Type B can be regarded as a mixture of these two groups.
Although it indicated an upward trend even after World War II, the quantum of increase is smaller than that of types E or F.
Types C and H show much the same trend as type B since World War II. The postwar trend of type I is similar to that of types B or E, but the quantum of increase is smaller. Type F is one that appeared only during world War II.
To sum up, there can be found, on one hand, those regions which showed the same tendency throughout the 13 epochs and, on the other, those regions which shifted from one type to another.
This unmistakably signifies that the development of wet paddy productivity differs from one region to another.
