In recent years Japan has experienced a rapid growth of industry, and the percentage growth of the GNP has renewed its remarkable record. So many changes have occured in various sides of society, also in agricultural mechanism and its relations. The paper is to research the back-ground of the change of agricultural policy and, as the result, to make clear the differenciation of peasantry and agricultural structure under the state-monopolycapitalism in Japan. After the World War II, the working population in agriculture has been on the decrease, being a peak in 1953-55. The decrease itself is a result of the development in agricultural productivity; however, it shows not only the effect of the economic law but the important questions in relation to agricultural department with the structure of reproduction of national economy in Japan. In 1970, agricultural income was accounted for only 5.5 percent of all national income, though the working population in agriculture was 16 percent of all. The facts means the discriminative relation with allocation of income between different departments of economy, being unfavourable for agriculture. Income differentials between industry and agriculture has been expanded, and this tendency has been aggravated in the past 15 years. However, agricultural income is affected by harvest and the price of agricultural products, especially the level of the price of rice guaranteed by Government. If productivity of rice crop increases or its price is pulled up with policy, such differentials must diminish as the fact in 1967 (agricultural income for each person being accounted for 87% of one in industry in comparison with 62% in I960). Since 1963, the rate of the rise in the price of rice has been checked with policy and, as the same time, Government reduced the yield of rice crop on account of its overproduction. So differentials became greater than the level in 1960. As the result, the outflow of labour from rural communities expanded, many peasants had to have side-jobs, and the "self-sustenance peasant" in rice crop branch decreased rapidly. This facts show a failure of the agricultural policy based on the "Agricultural Basic Law", which was to bring up the "self-sustenance peasant" for improvement of agricultural structure in Japan. In this way, agricultural policy turned over and came to use part-time peasants as cheap labour in the differenciation of peasantry. And next, so-called "Co-Ordinative Policy in Agriculture" came to the stage because of following reasons: (1) to correspond the yield of agricultural products with suitable demand in our courtry and to regulate their price. (2) to make the agricultural policy combine with new conditions made by rapid growth of industry in Japan. But we can not but point out that this " Co-Ordinative Policy in Agriculture " is, in fact, to sustain the system of cheap labour at this stage of our country, using peasants who are going to break away from peasantry and down to the real proletariat. So for, drafters has usually asserted on the agricultural policy, in conventional way, to cheapen the market price of food with increasing the efficiency and import, while promoting the policy for the "self-sustenance peasant" to balance agriculture with industry. But in this "Co-ordinative Policy in Agriculture", new drafters are to keep cheap labour in the form of peasant with side-jobs and to take utilization of land in cheap price for capitalist (e. g. reutilization of irrigation canals to industrial reservoirs). On the other hand, we know that the "co-ordinative agricultural policy" is also promoted with pressure from U. S. A. on account of the reserve in foreign currency and import of agricultural products in our country. The rise in the price of land is never a cause of the failure of "improvement of agricultural

(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

抄録全体を表示

The most remarkable change which took place in Japanese agriculture during the period 1960 to 1970 was the increase in earnings from off-farm jobs. It comprised 30% of the total income of households in 1960, but increased to 60% in 1970. This tendency is still continuing. It would be more appropriate to say that some laborers in manufacturing industries engage in agriculture in their spare time. The fundamental reason for this tendency was the economic gap between non-farm industry and agriculture. This gap has reached a level beyond hope of remedy. Secondly, the suspension of the rice price raising policy since 1968 has brought about a considerable decrease in farmers' income. These tedencies have caused a weakening in the productive power of small farmers. In 1960, the farm hands of one farm averaged about three persons, but in 1970 the average decreased to one person or less. Moreover the average age of farm hands had risen and the percentage of women had increased. It is noteworthy too, that these tendencies have spread to the Tohoku district, which is the most important region in Japanese agriculture, producing 25% of the total rice production in 1970, with the highest level of labor productivity in Japan. In I960 farmer in the Tohoku district required a minimum of two hectares of land in order to make a living from agriculture but by 1970 this minimum had risen to three hectares. However, only 3% of farms consisted of more than three hectares. There are many reasons for this situation, besides those stated above. One is the heavy burden of the cost of mechanization, and the second is the rapid rise of house hold expenses. Faced with this serious situation, it is necessary to discuss the reorganization of Japanese agriculture. The follwing three points would be important: the reorganization of the farming stystem, the size of farms, and landownership. Firstly, with respect to reorganization of the farming system, it will be necessary to change from the continuous cropping system, which produces only rice, to the scientific rotation system, which not only produces rice, but also raises livestock. Secondly, it is necessary to enlarge the size of farms, to a level suitable for mechanization, and to achieve this purpose, some kind of collective farms must be constructed. Thirdly, on the reform of landownership, land nationalization will be the ultimate aim.

抄録全体を表示