Abstract
Methodologically speaking, rural sociology in the post war period has developed with special emphasis on the class structure of rural societies. After the land reform, the consideration of rural class structure from the traditional view point of land-tenant relations became obsolete. It is difficult question to develop a new methodology of analyzing the class structure in rural society in Japan.
This report is intended to analize the rural social structure with reference to the development of capitalism. Japanese agriculture is characterized by the small scale farmer. The productive activities of agriculture and the consumption economy of household are combined in a single unit, viz, a family. An aim of production, in the first place, is placed maintenance of household economy that is necessary for reproductive process of labor force. Therefore agricultural activities do not exist fundamentally as an independent system, but are subordinate to household economy. By the increase of the cost of agricultural production through the input of a greater capital, for instance by mechanization, the flow of the surplus from productive sector to the consumption sector of a family becomes smaller and smaller. On the other hand, the cost of household economy is increasing by the rising level of living standard. A small scale farmer suffers from the shortage of money. He is obliged to select an alternative of the enlargement of agricultural scale or the scale of labor in a more profitable market. The agriculture labor system, quality and quantity of the input of labor force to a farming, is influenced by conditions of labor market outside agriculture and by the degree of mechanization of agriculture. The agriculture labor system can be considered as an adaptation of farmers to the development of capitalism in a rural society.
In a capitalistic society, agriculture and “monopolistic” capital are considered as fundamentally antagonistic. The agriculture labor system is a point of contact of these two antagonistic sectors.
