Looking back on the current state of agricultural recovery in Miyagi Prefecture after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and looking back various issues and responses that occurred in the process, mainly focus on the reconstruction of farmland, irrigation and drainage facilities. In order to proceed with the restoration, it is necessary to urgently restore and restore agricultural infrastructure such as farmland and agricultural water use facilities. Moreover, it was necessary to solve the problems of agriculture and rural areas so far, triggered by reconstruction. During the process of restoration, there were various issues such as technology, subsidy program, land use, and consensus building. Experts who confronted the disaster recovery site tried to respond to social demands by providing solutions to the difficulties that occur one after another in the wake of the disaster under the constraints of the law and the subsidy program. In addition, the experts in charge created practical measures, ideas, awareness, lessons learned, wisdom, etc. for the problem at hand, and responded to various situations by repeating the process of overcoming difficult situations. Furthermore, in the subsidy program in Reconstruction Grant, large-scale farmland consolidation and large-size agricultural machinery were introduced at the same time. This initiatives are noteworthy both in restoring agriculture and in demonstrating the benefits of large plots at an early stage. Looking back on these matters will be useful as a preparation for anticipated large disasters such as the Nankai Trough Earthquake and frequent heavy rain disasters.

We conducted an experiment on crop rotation methods using dry direct seeding rice cultivation, and plowing and compaction to restore field agriculture on the Sendai Plain in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. We consolidated 30a plots into two larger plots measuring 3.4 ha and 2.2 ha. A two-year, three-crop rotation system was then used to cultivate rice, wheat and soybeans in both fields from 2013. The average yields of rice, wheat and soybeans after three years were 533, 403 and 226 kg/10a, respectively. Further, the obtained yields were stable. The cost of 60 kg of rice, wheat and soybeans was JPY 6,806, JPY 7,397 and JPY 14,664, which is equivalent to 57%, 46%, and 72% compared to the average statistics in the Tohoku region, respectively. Due to irregularities in soil fertility, we employed a variable rate fertilization technique to prepare the large consolidated fields for cultivation. Using these methods, the cost of 60 kg of rice was further reduced by 3 points due to the increase in yields. Nine years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, numerous 100 ha-scale farms have been established. As a result, the application of dry direct seeding rice cultivation using plowing and compaction is increasing in this area.

In this paper, IDO Agriculture Producers’ Cooperative Corporation (IDO APCC) is investigated as a good case study model of agricultural revitalization in the Great Tsunami damaged area on March 11.2011. IDO APCC is a one villageone farm agricultural cooperative corporation, and was established by fifteen farmers who suffered from the disaster in order to reconstruct local agriculture and village. In addition, as shown in its corporate philosophy, IDO APCC aims to achieve the development of sustainable and efficient regional agriculture to become a revival symbol of agriculture and community. In various farming activities of IDO APCC, Production strategies and marketing strategies is especially characteristic as below. The production strategy mainly consists of the introducing new technologies such as the direct-seeding rice cultivation to realize achieve labor-saving and high-efficient rice production, and utilizing the surplus labor in rice production to achieve a year-round production of horticultural crops like green onion and tomato. On the other hand, the marketing strategy is characterized by branding “IDO Green Onion” and obtaining the certification of G-GAP in order to expand sales and market channel. In addition, IDO APCC’s various local activities for the reconstruction of villages, namely IDO community, in the post-disaster area are also characteristic. The specific content includes holding “IDO Green Onion Festival” to activate the communication among citizens, holding Harvest Thanksgiving Festival to provide the opportunity for the local residents to meet again, acceptance of the inspection and touring to advertise the regeneration of IDO area and so on. It is a major feature that various local contribution activities have been applied to reunite communities in the post-disaster area. Finally, IDO APCC’s various activities above mentioned will provide some important inspirations on exploring the model of agricultural revitalization in the tsunami-damaged areas, on making the development of large land use farming in the area of aging and lacking labor force and on the activity of local communities’ regeneration.

This paper aims to discuss the activities and issues of the past eight years, as well as future policies, based on the case of Ignal Farm Co., Ltd. (Higashimatsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture, hereinafter “Ignal”), which was established after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ignal used the government and the prefecture subsidies, and four young farmers began growing medium tomatoes in April 2012. Later, with the aim of developing sales channels, Ignal started salling to Lawson Co., Ltd. That is the trigger to establish Lawson Farm Ishinomaki in January 2014 with the investment of Lawson and Ignal. In June of the same year, Ignal obtained GLOBAL.G.A.P. Certification. This certification effectively worked to develop sales channels for major retailers. Furthermore, with the start of strawberry cultivation almost at the same time, the roles of officers were changed from business units to individual items. As a result, the motivation that we are company representative changed to a representative motivation based on functional arrangement. Employers are mainly in twenties and expected to grow as managers, including not only acquiring skills as growers, but also appropriate instruction skills to part-time workers. Ignal is also interested in expanding overseas in order to expand the opportunities for technical interns to be active in the future. To that end, Ignal have to achieve the target of the production volume at the current production base, develop new farmers who can carry out agriculture in order to "get better together", and enhance a support for their independence.

Eight years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. In the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, early-starting management entities have already reached their seventh year, and are facing different challenges from the start-up stage, such as the consolidation of agricultural land and agricultural facilities, technology, and business management. In this paper, we first use statistical data to understand the restoration situation and the state of new farm leaders in the tsunami-affected areas of Miyagi Prefecture, and further examine the direction and issues of farming development based on examples. Then we close up on corporate management, and list six corporations as examples. I pointed out four important issues. First, it is necessary to invest in machinery and equipment at an appropriate time, second, the need for new sales channels, third, securing successors, finally, the need for involving the related organizations and new support.

The Japanese government, in accordance with The Fourth Gender Equality Basic Plan、expected to increase to 30% the women’s participation in policy-taking processes in all sectors by 2020. In alignment with national policy, the Agricultural Commissions now need to make efforts such as setting goals to accept more women as their members.

Since April 2016, the number of the Agricultural Commissioners has shrunk sharply and the election system applying mutatis mutandis of the public offices election act was abolished. After this change, the number of the Agricultural Commissioners decreased from 30,060 people to 25,277 people.

However, the number of the female members in the Agricultural Commissioners increased from 2,655 (7.5%) to 2,758 (11.8%). This increase is due to the law which requires that more than one “neutral members”, that is, a legally established member who is not farmers and not stakeholders on the Agricultural Committee, be admitted in each Agricultural Committee.

This paper examines how the women are being accepted as members in the agricultural Commissioners, by comparing the number of female Agricultural Commissioners in several prefectures, as well as studying the evolution of the female participation in the Agricultural Committees in Niigata Prefecture. The selection process for the female members and changes observed in the female members after their admission also are discussed.

In akita Prefecture, planting expansion of green soybean is being promoted, and the area is expanded by planting expansion of a community-based group farming or family management corporation. We examined the conditions for introducing tractor-drawn harvester-threshers with the management body that plays a central role in the expansion of the production area.

The tractor-drawn harvester-threshers have better working efficiency than in the past and is effective in expanding the workable area. If the scale is expanded to the workable area, the income per 10a can be expected to increase, and it can be recommended when the scale is expanded.

The Producer-Consumer cooperative movement is an out growth of the organic agricultural movement, which became active during the 1970s. The cooperative movement first began in the form of social movement thought the collaboration between the production and consumption sectors. The 10 principles of partnership created by the Japan Organic agriculture Association in 1978 have been used as a guideline for partnerships between producers and consumers. However, reconsideration is necessary because these guidelines are no longer suitable in their present state. New guidelines are needed for regulating the Producer-Consumer cooperative movement. In this paper, we apply the concept of “Co-Creation of Value” to evaluate the nature of the relationship between producers and consumers, since it is said that producers and consumers create value together. As a result of creating value together, the value that consumers experience is known as “Value-in-Context.” This study examines the Produce-Consumer cooperative movement as it exists in the case of the Seikatsu-Club cooperative association and the Shonai-Midori agricultural cooperative. Based on interviews and questionnaire surveys, the relationship between producers and consumers was evaluated in the context of four identified elements: “dialogue,” “access,” “risk assessment,” and “transparency.” Furthermore, we clarify the meaning of the concept “Value-in-Context.” Finally, we show that a re-evaluation of the concept “Co-Creation of Value” is necessary in the context of the Producer-Consumer cooperative movement.