In 1947, agricultural land reforms were enacted in Japan by Douglas MacA

rthur. Agricultural land consisting mainly of paddy fields was transferred from
land owners to labor tenants. Thus, it became possible for countless labor tenan
ts, who had lived like slaves, to independently provide for themselves. The seri
es of agricultural land reforms enacted in Japan by America are said to be some
of the most successful such reforms in the world.
Following this, what was the status of Japanese agricultural land owners
hip? Japan was reborn as an industrialized nation, and agriculture, which had re
lied on rice production, lost its economic importance. As a result of the gradua
l progression of a number of different factors, such as the aging of rice farmer
s, the decrease of the population of agricultural workers, the abandonment of ag
riculture by the young, the lack of helpers for agricultural workers, the moveme
nt of the population to cities, and more than anything else, the fact that consu
mers stopped eating rice as well as the policy of reducing agricultural land due
to overproduction of rice, Japanese rice agriculture lost its competitiveness a
nd Japanese farmers, who mainly worked in rice farming, lost their political voi
ces.
The establishment of a law concerning agricultural land reforms in Japan
in August 2015 was a symbolic event. The bill reduces the authority of agricult
ural associations organized by individual farmers and encourages autonomous comp
etition by farmers in the region. It appears that the old system, wherein the fa
rmers to whom land was distributed supported the ruling party, and as a reward f
or this, their livelihood was guaranteed through high tariffs and subsidies on a
gricultural products, is coming to an end.
Thus, the state of agriculture in Japan has changed completely in the co
urse of approximately 70 years. The descendants of the former labor tenants to w
hom the agricultural land was distributed receive more economic benefit from wor
king as laborers in cities than continuing to farm the land they have inherited.
Until World War II, many impoverished Japanese farmers longed to own land, but
in recent years, fields, forests, and houses that have been abandoned and produc
e no economic benefit have become a problem across the country.
The socioeconomic structure has changed since the end of the war, and Ja
pan is now an affluent country in which the paternalistic policies that farmers
enjoyed in exchange for their support for conservative parties have made it poss
ible for these countless small-scale farmers to give up their independence and g
ain the ability to support themselves with a side job other than agriculture. Ra
ther than encouraging the fluidity and concentration of farmland, Japanese agric
ultural policies have made the determination to sustain agriculture despite low
productivity, bringing about a reduction in the competitiveness of agriculture,
the loss of independence of individual farmers, and various social problems.
Against such a background, according to surveys carried out frequently b
y sociologists, landowners in rural areas are strongly determined to not relinqu
ish the land they own and continue to hold onto it even if the income received f
rom agriculture is low. On the other hand, some reports indicate that owners of
agricultural land are getting rid of their land one after the next in accordance
with market principles. If working in cities leads to greater economic benefit,
it is more economically sensible for landowners to get rid of their land and wo
rk in cities. Is it in fact the case that when economic benefit is low, farmers
who see a meaning in holding onto their land have an awareness of tradition and
a desire to hold onto the land of their ancestors that goes beyond concepts of e
conomic sensibility, as is often stated? Or do actual farmers plan to get rid of
their land based on concepts of economic sensibility? Seventy years have passed
since the agricultural land reform, and Japan has become an affluent country, i
n which the attitudes toward land ownership of the descendants of the people to
whom the agricultural land was distributed are frequently unknown. Thus, this st
udy focuses on the attitudes of the landowners in sparsely populated areas of Ja
pan, aiming to clarify what these attitudes are as well which mechanisms produce
them.