工業化地域周辺山村における農業の変貌と農民層の動向

愛知県三河山間地域の場合

抄録

This article is an attempt to examine the change of agriculture and the trend of farmers in the Mikawa mountainous area (especially in Inabu cho and Toei cho) in the the period of higher economic growth after the Second World War. Mikawa mountainous area is in the northeastern part of Aichi pref. in Central Japan and extends near Toyota city where the automobile industry has rapidly grown in recent years (Fig. 1).
In Japan, the demand of industrial labor has increased in the process of high economic growth since 1960. Many young laborers in rural areas have moved into metropolitan areas (especially Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya). As the result, many mountain villages, which are now out of the mainstream of traffic, have been seriously depopulated. But after about 1965, the industrialization began to spread in many mountain villages because of industries, moving from metropolitan areas to mountainous areas for cheap labor. Furthermore, even in mountain villages, the improvement of roads and the motorization made commuting possible between the villages and neighboring industrial cities. Consequently, mountain villages were newly organized. Therefore, the author tries to clarify the following point: 1) the structure and its change of the local labor market through the above industrialization; 2) the relation of such industrialization and the outflow of agricultural population; 3) the relation of such outflow and the change in agriculture; 4) the trend of farmers in the two settlements which the author chose.
The following results were obtained:
1) The structure of the local labor market in this area changed after about 1965. Many small industries like automobile parts, textiles and electronics have moved to this area for the aquiring of cheap labor (Table. 4) and in the western district of this area, many people began to commute automobile industry in Toyota city by microbus (Table. 3) Consequently the labor market of this area has divided into three classes. That is, (1) both the labor market in the neighboring city and “the first type” labor market, which pay the average wages in Aichi pref; (2) “the second type” labor market which employs cheap labor composed of female workers; (3) the labor market of daily employment which is composed of the building industry and the sawing industry (Fig. 4).
2) Under such conditions, the outflow of agricultural population has increased (Table. 7). The author confirmed the fundamental tendency of “the outflow of agricultural population→the decline of agricultural production”. Though agricultural production (especially the production of rice, elephant feet and eggs) developed till about 1965, after which it began to decline. Many part-time farm-households which have remarkably increased, continue subsistence agriculture (monoculture of rice production). On the other hand, the production of broiler, tea and flowers shows a tendency to increasing development, but these products are produced by only a few upper class farmers.
3) Observing the trend of farmers in the unit of the settlement, in O settlement, Inabu cho, commuting farmers have continued or even expanded their farming, and in K settlement, Toei cho, in about one third of the total farm-households, the members are old people, and they are willing to continue the subsistence agriculture while their son works outside of this settlement (Table. 9). Recently, it is said that the depopulation of mountain villages has slowed, but such a phenomenon has a background that the old household has been increasing. So, we must consider that mountainous areas have new problems beyond the above depopulation.
Mikawa mountainous area is strongly connected to the automobile industry which has shown signs of prosperity during the recent economic depression. In that sense, this area is an exception in comparison with many other mountainous areas.