Abstract
The urbanization of rural areas around the large cities accompanied with the national economic development has been conspicuous in Japan since the 1960's. However, it was promoted rather with no plan. Therefore, the newly urbanized areas was not always equipped by the suitable living conditions.
New Urban Planning haw was enforced in 1969 in order to adjust the urbanization. According to the law, city planning areas is classified into two categories: the first is the area to promote urbanization positively for next 10 years, and the second is the area to preserve rural land use.
However, many farmers and their farm lands still remain in the area to promote urbani-zation due to their hesitation of switching to different jobs, while the trend of urbanization is remarkable. According to the law, the land tax enforced the farmers of this area for their cultivated lands, to pay the same amount of tax to residential land although the income from their farms is not enough to pay for the new tax. In the three major metroplitan areas of Tokyo-Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka-Kobe, the municipal governments instituted the special agricultural policy to protect farm households from heavy tax through the municipal budget.
The author shows in this paper how the program is being realized in each city.
(1) The policy is practiced in 117 out of 179 cities where the law is adopted. Almost all the cities in Tokyo and Osaka provide the policy, but, no city is applicable in Nara and Ibaraki prefectures.
(2) The application of the policy to the farm lands depends on the farmer' opinion and their situation in the designated area.
(3) The farmers who did not apply have the following reasons.: a. The labor shortage to maintain their farms, b. The plan to change their farm land into non-agricultural uses in the near future.
(4) It is assured that farm households are protected from heavy tax on their own farm land through this policy. In other words, it is significant that the municipal governments have reflected farmer's request on their urban policy in Japan.
This policy is tentative disposal to protect the suburban farmers, and it would be a future problem whether the policy would acquire the solid situation in the city planning.
