Abstract
In this paper the development process of milk industry in Fukushima Prefecture is described by analyzing the inter-relationships of city milkers (Sakunyu GyRsha), dairy farms and milk product processing companies. But the main attention is paid to the transformation of dairying with the expansion of Tokyo metropolitan milkshed.
Fukushima Prefecture has changed to a dairying area after World War II from a horse producing one of the prewar period. But even in the prewar period the dairy cows were kept by city milkers and others. Above all, the Iwase Pasture in Kagami-ishi had contributed much to the development of milk industry by lenting cows to 12 city milkers located along the Tohoku Railway from Utsunomiya to Sendai. Some dairy farms emerged in the Fukushima Basin by introducing a dairy product processing company called the Morinaga Tohoku-Nosan Co. Ltd. in 1937. At first the company encouraged the farmers to grow more dairy cows. Then, dairy cows were diffused southward and eastward during and after the war. The company therefore could gather milk produced in all Fukushima Prefecture exclusively until 1956. But the milk price controlled by this monopolistic company was kept so low for the dairy farmers that one of the dairy farmers co-operatives in Motomiya-machi introduced another dairy product company called the Kyodo-nyugyo.
Southern part of Fukushima Prefecture was a target area of many companies to fulfill the shortage of fluid milk in Kanto areas after around 1960. The expansion of Tokyo metropolitan milkshed to this area has accelerated not only the trend to keep many dairy cows on farms but also the north-south movement of the core region of dairying in Fukushima Prefecture. Thus, the southern part of Fukushima Prefecture, a marginal area of Tokyo metropolitan milkshed, was influenced directly by the large demand of fluid milk distributers in Tokyo in summer.
