Abstract
Japanese rural life during the second half of the 20th century has experienced rapid changes. Rural inhabitants were still poor till about 1960. Almost all Japanese suffered from food shortages just after the Second World War. Japanese farmers labored to increase farm production. After the 1960’s which were a period of high economic development, the food shortages disappeared and the quality of life rose progressively due to the industrialization of Japan.
Our group interview with the aged prepared unified questionnaire and asked them on the states of life at the three time points in 1940, 1960 and 1996 in order to indicate the rise and change in quality of life. As indicated here farmers were obliged to adapt to a commodity economy and introduce fruit cultivation or livestock farming. Some of them became part-time farmers working non-farm jobs away from rural areas.
In order to overcome the confusion of present day, we should learn lessons from the experiences of the aged who lived during times of war, times of food shortages, times of rapid industrialization and the present global information oriented time.
