The objective of the report is to examine the direction of system reform for keeping Japanese agriculture alive with special reference to farmland system.

　The farmland policies in Japan are put into effect by three approaches to achieve three goals such as the conservation of environment, the development of agricultural productivity, and the rise of farmers' income. The three approaches are ensuring and conserving farmland, making efficient use of farmland, and choosing land user's course. However, before the third approach is settled, the first two approaches do not sound practical. Thus institutional policies for farm management, i.e. the "NINAITE" policies, have proven to be of increasing importance in today's farmland policies.

　We can show three issues of the institutional policies for farm management in agriculture based on land use : i.e., 1) developing new ideas of individual farm management ; 2) understanding collective production organization ; and 3) creating juridical persons.

　We propose some ideas on these issues, respectively. The idea of joint farming is introduced as an individual farm management to the first issue. As concerns the second issue, collective production organization as well as joint farming can be recognized as a main business organization in agriculture based on land use. Associated with the third issue, we need to give an inherent economic unit of agriculture based on land use an inherent juridical person and carry out advantageous and supporting policies for the juridical person.

　The purpose of this paper is to study the reform of the rice management system in Japan.

　1) It was the aim of the Food Control Law to promote staple food production and control food distribution and prices so as to provide sufficient food supplies. The law was legislated for war in 1942.

　2) There were three reasons why it continued to exist after the war. First, meanwhile after the war, the shortage of rice continued. Second, therefore rice consumption must be restrained. Third, the trend of rice consumer price affected consumers' family finances.

　3) But these reasons disappeared in the 1960s, when the Japan economy grew very rapidly. The consumption of rice began to reduce with net income rising sharply. So from a consumers' standpoint it became unnecessary to control rice distribution.

　4) Between 1965 and 1990, the percentage of rice expense/household expenses dropped from 7.0 to 1.7. The fluctuation of consumer's rice price has little effect on consumers' household economy, so the necessity to control consumer price is very little.

　5) Nowadays, some restrictions based on the Food Control Law are eased, but others are not. The restrictions which are not eased today are mainly the ones suitable for the curtailment of rice production by policy.

　6) The curtailment of rice production is not good for rice producers and consumers, but it is necessary. So the way of curtailment must be reconstructed, and rice producer price must be gradually lowered near the demand-supply equilibrium price.

　7) In the near future, Japanese rice management system must be changed to the partial control from the overall control.

　Since the land improvement system was established in 1949, the system is based on the socio-economic structures in those days. The societies consisted of fullowner farmers and traditional village communities. Farming was dominated by rice production. The typical rural life-style and civil engineering technologies were at pre-modern stage.

　During these 30-40 years, the structure changed, and land improvement system faces difficulties to form projects newly. Under these circumstances, land improvement to enhance land and labor productivity will be stagnant in future unless drastic reforms in the system are undertaken.

　The reforms are expected to establish clear doctrine for land improvement, to add new purposes, to reform cost allocation system, and to add projects newly categorized as follows.

　The central government is expected to achieve a national consensus on developing agriculture and rural areas at present, and on globalizing Japanese affairs. The system is expected to develop not only agricultural production but rural living standards, to maintain regional ecology, and to contribute to international cooperation.

　Main facilities (except investments on plots) such as water storage dams, canals, roads, are expected to be constructed by the central and/or local governments. A new land consolidation project should be established. A comprehensive plot management system should be introduced for the traditional management method that is a plot-to-plot management method.