Family labor pattern of Japanese farm family during the 50 years period from late 1950’s to early 2000’s was discussed utilizing micro-level longitudinal time allocation data obtained from diary surveys in rice cropping communities （one in Okayama and the other in Yamagata）. Family labor is defined as consisting of production labor and reproduction labor under farm family enterprise. The former includes farm work and off-farm work. The latter includes domestic work, rearing and caring.
　　　During the 50 years, farming in Japan was characterized by the increase of productivity yielded by mechanization. At the same time, Japanese society, as a whole, experienced economic growth. As to reproduction labor, gender difference remains all the period. It is women who perform reproduction labor besides production labor. Men seldom perform reproduction labor. As to production labor, the amount measured by time did not change much. However, the composition of production labor changed. The share of off-farm work increased while that of farm work decreased. Cyclical change in the composition of production labor also diminished. These trends are clear among younger members. It means that off-farm work has come to be critical factor in farm family enterprise. Looking at regional difference, we observe change in production labor more in Okayama than in Yamagata.

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　　　Most of rural areas in Japan are suffering from depopulation. This study shows changes in the relationships between out-migrants and their origin village by focusing on traditional festivals, and discusses the capability of out-migrants to support their depopulated village. The analysis is based on the results from field work in Mogura village, Hayakawa town, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan.
　　　In the Mogura village, there are festivals that are initiated by young men called “Wakeisyu”. Since 1960s, the out-migration of young men to town to attend their high school became common. However, although the families and the jobs of these young men are located in town, they have continued to visit their village and keep on contributions for their village in some way. Especially they participate in initiating festivals so that the festivals can survive even after there are no young men living in the village.
　　　The factors that contributed for out-migrants to continuously participate were found to be: （1）they acquired the local knowledge and techniques in their childhood;（2）they keep their past neighborhood network;（3）they keep the rules of participation in the festivals flexible.

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　　　Population decline, caused by increasing social mobility, and the related immigration of Hokuriku Jodo Shinshu-sect Buddhists were precipitated by the need to redevelop agriculture, reduce poverty and restore the Mutsu-Nakamura domain’s troubled finances in the latter part of the Tokugawa period. In the following paper, the memoranda of Kowata Hikobei （a rural administrator with the social position of samurai, who, along with his father, worked to organize the immigration） are used to explore the intelligence network by which 301 individuals from 57 households of the Jodo Shinshu religious community immigrated to the Mutsu-Nakamura domain during the period from 1815 to 1832.
　　　The arrival of some 3,000 or so immigrants in the Mutsu-Nakamura domain from 1813 to 1871 was seen as a great “success”, particularly in terms of re-invigorating the domain’s finances. It should be noted, however, that this internal migration neither assisted the contemporary strengthening of the shogunate nor hastened its collapse. Rather, having a strong intelligence network the Jodo Shinshu religious community removed itself from the framework of the shogunate, and in the process they served their own organization by, in effect, making the whole Japanese archipelago “borderless”.

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