Not much later than the termination of the Second World War, the agricultural land reform was conducted in Japan, most of the tenanted lands being forced to be sold to the tenants. At that time salt producing fields were exempted from the reform, remaining in the hands of the field owner who did not themselves produce salt. The year 1971 saw the entire completion of salt field abolishment throughout the country, no tenanted salt fields being to be found at all. How in the course of the time until 1971 were they sold the tenants? And what kind of troubles were heard of in the process of extinction of the salt field tenancy? That is what to be disclosed hereafter in this paper.
The governmental monopoly system of the salt industry in Japan started in 1905, when the salt producing right was directly given to each producer. 86% of the salt fields of those days in Kagawa Prefecture were ones tenanted from the non-salt-making land owners, who restored or tried to restore the land from the tenants running the salt producing themselves around 1920. Disputes between the tenant and the field owner arose, mostly ending in the losing on the former side, especially in Kagawa Pref. This was the 1st epoch. The 2nd, which commenced in 1935, saw a lot of troubles caused by the economical burndens levied upon the tenant in the form of construction expenditure of the rationalized type of a salt factory. The consequence was that almost all the tenancy rights were purchased by the owners, who became owner salt makers. In the areas, other than Kagawa Prefecture, the salt field restoration to the ex-owners took place as well, the percentage of the tenanted field being exceedingly lowered. But Kagawa was one of the most chracteristic regions, where the tenancy right was vehemently resisted in being deprived of, it must be paid attention to.
In the 3rd epoch, around 1950, many land owners who were annoyed by heavy taxation, changed their mind to sell the land to their tenants. The result was a percentage increment of owner salt makers. Actually the tenanted salt fields almost disappeared those days. In and after 1955, salt producing method was converted into a new device, so-called falling down system and it urged the annihilation of tenancy system. This was the 4th and the last epoch, during which land owners made a remarkable concession in transfering one haft of the field for nothing to the tenants. Both ex-owners ran their own salt paddies.

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Several epochs can be perceived in the process of modernization of the salt industry in Japan, which had been conducted entirely through authorized guidances since the enforcement of governmental monopoly system in 1905. This paper is to depict and consider what changes in the economical mechanism of regional salt industry took place as the consequence of switching-over from the “percolating method” to the newly-deviced “falling-down system”. The reform was executed mostly during the years before and after 1955.
Here on the stage appear two salt making areas at Sakaide and Utazu as typical examples to be discussed. During the period in which the old-fashioned percolating method prevailed, both of them boasted their being ranked highest in pruductivity per area. Utazu was especially featured by a fact that all the salt fields were tenanted without exception. Most of the fields there had been developed through the local small and medium sized capital funds since Meiji era. These capitalists established a joint salt field company owning all the salt fields and it levied high rate of rental upon the tenants, to each of whom one salt paddy as wide as about 1.5ha or one half of that was allotted.
In 1913 tenanted salt fields were equivalent to 86% of the whole in Kagawa prefecture. The nationwide land reform was executed immediately after the termination of the World War II. Salt fields were exempted from it, but the increased taxation levied upon the land owners began to make it economically difficult for the tenanted fields to be maintained. Out of Sakaide salt fields, as wide as 86ha in all, 30ha was tenanted in 1950, but 1954 saw only 20ha tenanted.
Transition from the old method into the new “falling-down method” caused a lot of troubles, among which tenancy liquidation was the one having to be carried out. That's because under the new system the unit of productive labor had got to be enlarged, obliging the management leadership of the salt industry to be transmitted to the newly-settled salt production union which was an executing body made up of whole salt makers, including tenants as well as land owners. Incidentally enough, in 1951 at Sakaide a land owner brought up a law-suit against one of his tenants, claiming return of the rented land. The first trial was closed in favor of the land owner. Five years later, however, the decision was overturned in the second trial, which told that as far as the ownership was concerned, 40% should belong to the former owner while the rest should remain in the tenant's posession. This court decision provided a kind of pattern in liquidating tenancy relation on the occasion of transforming the salt making method and it prevailed in Sakaide area in the form that there were three types of settlement as follows: firstly purchase by the owner, secondly purchase by the tenant, and thirdly partition between the two parties. At Utazu, mentioned first, several years previously whole stocks of the salt field company had been bought up by the tenants union. Therefore, as a matter of fact, at this time there existed very few tenants. It meant that no troubles of the same kind as at Sakaide could be heard of there.
It required that nearly 2 million yen per ha to convert a field into falling-down typed one. The cost was paid mostly by running in to a vast amount of debt. Production method conversion brought about productivity increased more than threefold and amount of lessened to only one fifth when compared with the past. Strange enough, it happened that income from the salt industry decreased. The culprit was payment of the debt, an inevital result of huge investment. Side jobs such as office working, commerce, civil engineering, etc. became very common among employers of the salt field companies. At Sakaide, as partitioned inheritance and releasing of salt field went on, area of the fields owned by each individual got less and less wide.

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