This paper deals with a monograph of a fishing village (Minamihama-buraku) on the coast of an isolated island (Rishiri) in Hokkaido.
Since 1955, Minamihama-buraku has experienced a great change on the forms of fishing and the population structure due to the decrease of fish and the increased demand for labor in the large cities in Japan.
In the process of this social change, we find the types of migration as follows :
I. Permanent Migration (Rural Exodus)
A : Exodus of a whole family (“Kyoka-rison”)
B : Exodus of a member or members of a family (“Rika-rison”)
Rika-rison can be divided into two types according as its structure :
1) the husband-wife unit migration
2) the single migration
II. Temporal Migration (“Dekasegi” --Seasonal labor in a different place)
While “Kyoka-rison” is observed among the upper classes in the village, “Rika-rison” of the single member (including the eldest and the other sons) is seen without any connection with the economic basis of the family, and as a new type, “Rika-rison” of the husband-wife unit has occurred recently.
In the days of a good haul of fish, the number of family members was large on account of the neccessity of labor force in the fishing season, and when fishermen were free from fishing labor, some of them, especially sons other than the eldest went to another place to work.
However, many of them have left home and event the householder and the eldest son are now going to “Dekasegi”. This is a process for turning over to other industry.
Thus, “Dekasegi” which had been practiced in order to lessen the members of family as a consumptive unit has assumed such a positive character as to earn wages to support the household economy.
As a result of the above-mentioned migration, types of families covering three generations have decreased in number and the new type of the family consisting only of an old couple is now frequently found.
What we have found is the interrelationship between the family types and the forms of fishing.
1. All of one-generation families belong to the lowest class which has no motor-boat for fishing. Here in this village, one-generation family consists of a branch family (“Bunke”) and the family whose eldest son has left home.
2. Many of the two-generation families are engaged in the cooperative fishing with families of the same type. In this type of family, the main supporter is either the husband or the eldest son. Whether this type becomes the type of one-generation family or that of three-generation family depends on the presence of the successor in fishery.
3. Three-generation families are in this village engaged in the most wide-scale fishery and the eldest son is taking the main role for production in the family.
We can observe the change in the cooperative system. Until now economic and social cooperation was practised by means of kindship relation, but it has now changed into a mutual aid system based on ties of neighborhood and locality.
This change coincides with the weakening of social control of a main family (“Honke”) over a branch family (“Bunke”).
