Agriculture in the Empire of Japan

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Ministry of Agriculture in Tokyo, pre-1923

Agriculture in the Empire of Japan was an important component of the pre-war

Japanese economy. Although Japan had only 16% of its land area under cultivation before the Pacific War, over 45% of households made a living from farming. Japanese cultivated land was mostly dedicated to rice
, which accounted for 15% of world rice production in 1937.

Historical development

Meiji period

After the end of the

Meiji government based its industrialization program on tax revenues from private land ownership, and the Land Tax Reform of 1873
increased the process of landlordism, with many farmers having their land confiscated due to inability to pay the new taxes.

This situation was worsened by the

textile mills or to sell daughters into prostitution
to pay for taxes.

In the early

farm subsidies
, loans, and education in new agricultural techniques.

The first agricultural cooperatives were established in 1900, after their creation was debated in the

Diet of Japan by Shinagawa Yajirō and Hirata Tosuke as a means of modernizing Japanese agriculture and adapting it to a cash economy. These cooperatives served in rural areas as credit unions
, purchasing cooperatives and assisted in the marketing and sales of farm products.

Taishō period

The Imperial Agricultural Association (帝国農会, Teikoku Nokai) was a central organization for

agricultural research
and facilitating the sales of farm products. The Imperial Agricultural Association was at the peak of a three tier structure of national-prefectural-local system of agricultural.

This organization was of vital importance after nationwide markets were consolidated under government control in the aftermath of the

Rice Riots of 1918
and increasing economic crisis from the late 1920s. Increasing tenant farmer disputes and issues with landlordism also led to increasing government regulation.

After the Rice Riots of 1918, many peasants came under the influence of the urban

Diet of Japan only to people of wealth. In 1922, the Nihon Nomin Kumiai (Japan Farmer's Union) was formed for collective bargaining
for cultivator rights and reduced rents.

Shōwa period

By the 1930s, the growth of the

.

With the growth of the wartime economy, the government recognized that landlordism was an impediment to increased agricultural productivity, and took steps to increase control over the rural sector through the formation of the Central Agricultural Association (中央農会, Chuo Nokai) in 1943, which was a compulsory organization under the wartime

command economy to force the implementation of government farming policies. Another duty of the organization was to secure food supply to local markets and the military. It was dissolved after World War II
.

Farming

Farmed land in 1937 was 14,940,000 acres (60,500 km2), which represented 15.8% of the total Japanese surface area, compared with 10,615,000 acres (42,960 km2) or 40% in Ohio (USA), or 12,881,000 acres (52,130 km2) or 21% in England. The proportion of farmed land rose from 11.8% in 1887 to 13.7% in 1902, and 14.4% in 1912 to 15.7% in 1919. This fell to 15.4% in 1929. There were 5,374,897 farmers at an average 2.67 acres (10,800 m2) per family, in comparison with any American farmer family with 155 acres (630,000 m2). These were larger in Hokkaidō and Karafuto and reduced by 2 acres (8,100 m2) in southwest area. The intense culture, fertilizers and scientific development, raised the yield to 43 bushels per acre (2.89 t/ha) in 1936.

In Japan there now is only 6,9% of farmed land.

Status per geographic region

Northern territories

The sparsely populated

small-scale agriculture; the economy was based the fishing, whaling, and harvest of furs and reindeer
meat.

oats, rye, forage, and vegetables. Only 7% of Karafuto was arable. The livestock raising
was quite important. Farming experiments with rice were partially successful. Through government policies, capable farmers from Hokkaidō and northern Honshū received 12.5 to 25 acres (51,000 to 101,000 m2) of land and a house to settle in Karafuto, and thus the amount of land under cultivation and the Japanese population rose steadily through the 1920s and 1930s. By 1937, 10,811 families were cultivating 86,175 acres (348.74 km2), as opposed to 8,755 families cultivating 179.9 km2 in 1926.

Hokkaidō

Hokkaidō was a target area for agricultural development since the start of the Meiji period, with the establishment of the Hokkaidō colonization Office, and with the assistance of

dairy industry was important, as was the raising of horses for use by the Imperial Japanese Army cavalry
.

Farmer households numbered 2,000,000 and the government mentioned the possibility to establish another 1,000,000.

Honshū

The farms were 3.5 to 4 acres (14,000 to 16,000 m2), for rice, potatoes, and rye. Northern Honshū produced 75% of

Aichi, and also rye, rice, grapes for wine
, etc.

Shikoku & Kyūshū

Due to subtropical conditions, Shikoku and Kyūshū islands were dominated by traditional rice and sweet potato crops. Other important crops included

morel
, silk and livestock raising (horses and cows).

Ryūkyūs

The tropical

Ryūkyū Islands
with their limited cultivatable area had a largely subsistence agriculture based on rice, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and fruits.

Taiwan

With a large ethnic Chinese population, agricultural methods and products in Taiwan were in the Chinese-style, with rice cultivation and sweet potatoes dominating. Cash crops included fruits and tea and jute & ramie. (The cultivated land was 2,116,174 acres (8,563.85 km2) at a density of 1,576 inhabitants per square mile in 1937.

The central government gave strong emphasis on development of the

sugar cane
industry, and Taiwan satisfied 42% of the crude sugar demand of Japan. The consumption of sugar in Japan grew from 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in 1918 to 30 pounds (14 kg) in 1928.

The central government also placed strong emphasis on the development of forestry products. Camphor wood was collected from forests or plantations under a government-monopoly (the "Formosa Manufacturing Company" from 1899).

South Seas Mandate

The equatorial tropical conditions of the South Seas Mandate islands supported farming of coconuts, taro, sweet potatoes, tapioca, bananas, pineapples and rice, for local use and export. The sugar cane industry was given strong emphasis by the central government, with principal sugar in Saipan and Palau. However, the very limited cultivable land area of the South Seas Mandate meant that fishing and whaling remained more economically important.

Philippines

Prior to the Pacific War there was a small Japanese settlement in

Manila hemp. This was the main center of cultivation in the region, with farming of sugar cane, pineapple, bananas, sweet potato and other tropical crops. Abaca farming exceeded sugar cane cultivation in area but not in value. 25% was sent to the USA. Sisal
was also exported to the US and Japan.

See also

  • Empire of Japan (foreign commerce and shipping)

References

Citations

Sources

Primary sources
  • Francks, Penny (2004). Rural Economic Development in Japan From the Nineteenth Century to the Pacific War. Routledge. .
  • Partner, Simon (2004). Toshié: A Story of Village Life in Twentieth-Century Japan. University of California Press. .
  • Smitka, Michael (1998). Agricultural Growth and Japanese Economic Development. Japanese Economic History, 1600-1960. Vol. 7. New York: Garland. .
Secondary sources
  • Semple, Hellen C. "Influence of Geographical Conditions upon Japanese Agriculture", Geographical Journal XL, (1912), p. 589–607.
  • Penrose, E. F. "Food Supply and Raw Materials in Japan", Chicago, Chicago University Press, (1929).
  • King, F. H. "Farmers of Forty Centuries", New York, Ed Harcourt (1926)
  • Orchard, Dorothy E. "Agrarian Problems of Modern Japan", Journal of Political Economy XXXVII, (1929), p. 129–149, 285–311.
  • Hall, Robert Burnett." Agricultural Regions of Asia, Part VII, The Japanese Empire", Economic Geography, X,(1934), p. 323–347;X, (1935), p. 33–52, 130–147.
  • Ladejinski, W. "Agrarian Unrest in Japan" Foreign Affairs XVI (1939), p. 426–433.
  • Ladejinski, W. "Japan's Food Self-sufficiency", Foreign Agriculture, IV,(1940), p. 355–376.
  • Dawson, O. L. & Ladejinski, W. "Recent Japanese Agricultural Policies", Foreign Agriculture III, (1939), p. 263–274.

External links