There were regional increases and decreases in the number of farm households in pre-war Japan. The aim of this paper is to analyze relevant data of prefectures in the prewar period to find out the regional character of the changes in the number of farm households, and to examine its factors in relation to the Ie system. Our analysis drew six points of conclusion: (1) The number of farm households increased in eastern Japan and south Kyusyu, and decreased in western Japan; (2) Regional increase and decrease in the number of households correlated with the rise and fall in the number of tenant farm households; (3) Regional increase and decrease in the area of arable land also correlated with changes in the number of farm households; (4) Regional shifts in rural populations correlated with regional rise and fall in the number of farm households as well; (5) It is not a correct perception that impartible inheritance of land to a single heir dominated in prewar Japan. The reality was that many farmers divided their Ie property while they were still alive and gave small parts to children who did not succeed to their Ie; and (6) The number of farm households in eastern Japan grew due to the increase in the rural population and creation of tenants households that were given small tenant rights by the father as a social security in exchange for lack of inheritance of Ie.

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Japanese rural areas are running short of farmers who can accept farmland from the retired farmers, and the amount of the abandoned farmland is increasing. Under these circumstances, the number of the special subsidiary companies which have expanded their business to agriculture has been increasing, and it will go on. If these new type special subsidiary companies can overcome their weaknesses in their agricultural business, they will become the farms which can support the regional agriculture where they are located because they have the better manpower (includes employed persons with disabilities) and many strengths, compared with the social-welfare corporations which have expanded their business to agriculture. If the special subsidiary companies can establish good relationships in their agricultural business with the farmers and the social-welfare corporations which belong to their regional areas, they will have possibilities to play important roles in the regional economics and the regional communities where they are located.

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This paper examines the directions that research into rural women's entrepreneurship is expected to take in the future by reviewing trends in the research of rural women's entrepreneurship in Japan. First of all, this paper looks at trends in the government's relevant policies since the 1990s, when rural women's entrepreneurship was set as a policy, and surveys the status of women living in rural areas and the present circumstances of rural women's entrepreneurship. This continues with a study into trends in the research of the following subjects: 1) social relationships and principles of the organization formation of rural women's entrepreneurship, 2) features and effectiveness of rural women's entrepreneurship, 3) the potential and roles of rural women's entrepreneurship as a social enterprise, and 4) problems related to the succession of rural women's entrepreneurship. Progress is expected in research into the expansion of private management, the relationship between local agriculture and entrepreneurship activities, the possibility of the fixation of the activities and roles by gender, participation in entrepreneurship and the setting up of new businesses by young women, and other subjects.

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