2024 Volume 70 Issue 4 Pages 388-408
The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of agricultural reorganization in the Tohoku region, based on trends in structural changes in Japanese agriculture. In the 2000s, Japanese agriculture has seen a rapid increase in the number of non-farmers who own land due to a decrease in the number of farm household members and changes in family relationships. While the number of farm households is decreasing, the formation of large-scale operations is progressing, but two main regions have been identified: regions that are oriented toward extended scale expansion, and regions where the rate of increase in large-scale operations in terms of sales value is high.
The agricultural region of Tohoku has traditionally cultivated rice formed around land-based agriculture. However, due to a quantitative decline in the number of part-time farmers and declining of rice prices, regions that specialized in rice cultivation suffered a decline in their economic status. The region is now becoming differentiated into regions where structural restructuring is progressing and regions where it is stagnant.
The restructuring of the agricultural structure at the current stage is summarized as follows. On the one hand, it shows the direction of forming a small number of large-scale businesses. On the other hand, we have reached the point where we can expect a “transformation” into a system in which land ownership and production are separated, with landowners now making up a greater share than self-employed farmers. In the future, there will be a need to restructure autonomous regional agriculture with an eye towards the next generational change of farmers.
