Abstract
Japanese rural areas are running short of farmers who can accept farmland from the retired farmers, and the amount of the abandoned farmland is increasing. Under these circumstances, the number of the special subsidiary companies which have expanded their business to agriculture has been increasing, and it will go on. If these new type special subsidiary companies can overcome their weaknesses in their agricultural business, they will become the farms which can support the regional agriculture where they are located because they have the better manpower (includes employed persons with disabilities) and many strengths, compared with the social-welfare corporations which have expanded their business to agriculture. If the special subsidiary companies can establish good relationships in their agricultural business with the farmers and the social-welfare corporations which belong to their regional areas, they will have possibilities to play important roles in the regional economics and the regional communities where they are located.
