Patterns on Change of the Customary Irrigation Order in Rural Community in Present-Day Japan

Abstract

The characteristics of the irrigation system in the present-day Japan are as follows; the conventional irrigation system which was collectively controlled is weakening and the private irrigation control system is appearing with the development of private farm management after the Land Reform, especially remarkably since 1955. The writer classifies the changes of the conventional irrigation system into three patterns: 1. The first pattern--which appeared when the type of rice production controlled collectively in the conventional irrigation system collapsed. The collapse is caused by social appreciation of labor value due to the development of commercial farming as well as agricultural techniques. 2. The second pattern--which is formed when the land irrigation pattern is changed following the change of the conventional irrigation system, for instance the change of the drainage period. In the second pattern, however, relatively small is the farmer's freedom in the choice of crops. The change of the conventional irrigation system occured when the less productive land was changed into the more productive land and the first type of differential rent was formed by application of new techniques and investment for land improvement. 3. The third pattern this is the typical pattern of the private irrigation control by small scale farmers. Farmers can choose crops more freely than in the second pattern. The development of this pattern is based on the change in production pattern caused by such type of large capital investment as resulting in more differential rent. Whereas, some of the collective irrigation control still survive and limit the private control even in the third pattern. It is connected to the fact that small scale farming has been prevalent notwithstanding the rapid development of agricultural productivity. The experience of the Republic of China which has established the collective farming system provides us with many suggestions how to improve fundamentally rice farming in our country.