This paper aims at clarifying the formation process of agricultural systems in a vegetable growing area which is transitioned from suburban to truck farming areas. Emphasis was put on the expansion of collecting and shipping areas of agricultural cooperatives and groups. Field studies are made in 2002-2004 in Yachimata-shi, Tomisato-shi, Sanbu-machi and Shibayama-machi, located on the low upland of Shimousa in northern Chiba Prefecture some 50-60km to the east of Tokyo and just south of Narita International Airport.
Just after World War II, the major products there were wheat and other grains, together with peanuts and satoimo (a kind of taro), and vegetable growing was only a little except for home consumption. Vegetables for sale were individually treated through local jobbers.
As the urban market grew, vegetable production increased accordingly. In Yachimata-shi, Tomisato-shi and Sanbu-machi, the farmers concerned optionally organizad shipping groups by settlement, and vegetable began to be sold through these groups. In 1965, fourty-one shipping groups were active altogether. Soon later, these groups began to decrease in number. Instead, Shibayama-machi, farmers organized an agricultural cooperative (Nlaruasa-engei Agricultural Cooperative), and vegetables grown by them began to be sold through this agricultural cooperative.
In and since the 1970s, vegetable production as a whole saw and has seen great increases. In this region, full-time farmers endeavored to grow watermelon, carrot and tomato, and these were sold through increased agricultural cooperatives with a function of shipping. Thereafter, agricultural cooperatives strengthened their sales systems by constructing many facilities for vegetable collection and shipment using the government subsidy.
Farmers mainly growing watermelon, carrot and tomato began to sell these as a sales policy under the guidance of agricultural cooperatives, and they received financial support from the national and prefectural governments to construct vinyl greenhouses. In and after the 1970s, however, farmers growing crops other than watermelon, carrot and tomato continued to ship crops to local jobbers and local markets, together with newly developing daily-commodity cooperatives.

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Since the middle of the 1990s, when market principles were introduced, rice production in Japan has undergone several fundamental changes. One of the changes is that the number of large-scale rice farms has rapidly increased, leading to a reduction in the cost of rice production.
The purpose of our study was to clarify the regional characteristics and changing structure of large-scale rice growing areas in the Tohoku District using the 1980 and 2000 agricultural censuses and other related data.
The regional characteristics of 175 municipalities were analyzed using the principal component analysis method, and the structural change was analyzed using the cluster analysis (Ward's) method.
We used the principal component analysis method (26 variables, shown in Table 1) to analyze data for large-scale rice growing areas collected in 1980. Six components that had eigenvalues over unity (cumulative percentage of the total variance; 78.8%) were extracted. The characteristics of the components are shown in Table 2. The three major components can be defined agricultural labor force (eigenvalue: 9.0; percentage of total variance explained: 34.6%), management scale (4.2; 16.1%), and dependence on rice farming (2.7; 10.4%).
The principal component analysis (Ward's) method (26 variables, shown in Table 3) was used to analyze data for large-scale rice growing areas collected in 2000. Seven components that had eigenvalues over unity (cumulative percentage of the total variance; 79.8%) were extracted. The characteristics of the components are shown in Table 3. The three major components are defined agricultural labor force (eigenvalue: 8.3; percentage of total variance explained: 31.8%), management scale (4.3; 16.6%), and dependence on rice farming (2.7; 10.2%). These results suggest that the most important factor of large-scale rice growing areas is the availability of an agricultural labor force.
The spatial patterns were clarified using a typology of large-scale rice growing areas based on the first three components.
From 1980 to 2000, the large-scale rice growing area of Tohoku District was made up of normal large-scale rice growing areas and other areas. Four results were derived from a cluster analysis of 1980 and 2000 data (Fig. 4).
The results of the cluster analysis show that, in 1980, the large-scale rice growing area of Tohoku District was divided into four agricultural regions: Cluster I shows a “decrease in the agricultural labor force” area, Cluster II shows a “full agricultural labor force” area, Cluster III shows a “large-scale rice growing” area, and Cluster IV shows a “dependence on rice farming” area.
The results of the cluster analysis show that, in 2000, the large-scale rice growing area of Tohoku District was divided into four agricultural regions: a “normal large scale rice growing” area (in all of the area), a “full agricultural labor force” area (Niigata Plain), a “large scale rice growing” area (Shonai and Tsugaru), and a “rice farming recession” area (Fukushima Pref.).

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