The purpose of this article is to examine policymaking process of SAW, with a focus on the dispute between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). The findings of the study are as follows: 1) From the perspective of agricultural policy, SAW was intended as a measure for dealing with domestic agricultural problems, such as job scarcity among younger sons and lack of successors of farmers. SAW, in addition, was planned as single emigration policy for rural youths. 2) There was a fundamental difference of the status of SAW between two ministries. MOFA had consistently treated SAW as a part of diplomatic policy. MAF, on the other hand, regarded this project as domestic agricultural policy. Due to a lack of coordination, it required two years to make a cabinet agreement. 3) Based on these findings, the author proposes that it is necessary to take agricultural emigration into account in Japan's agricultural policy studies, and that what is needed in Japan's postwar emigration policy studies is to explore the dynamics among the interested organizations.

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We examined the merger of rural agricultural organizations, with a focus on community farming. The merger of community farming was studied from three perspectives. One was the absorption of community farming, the second was coexistence with community farming, and the last was assimilation. In the case of absorption, small numbers of core employees can be given charge of managing the hire of organization members, thus maximizing profit by mobilizing rural resources efficiently. However, other members can be unwilling to serve their contribution, because most of them prefer to rent their farms to the organization and retire from farming. Coexistence tends simply to delay the problems of absorption by putting them on the back-burner. In the case of assimilation of community farming, mergers can occur without creating any of the above-mentioned problems. In one example in our research, new projects involving multilateralization and corporate social responsibility were initiated. These new businesses can enhance members' awareness of their ability to contribute to the organization by becoming involved in projects.

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