Regional and temporal changes in agricultural systems of Japan with regard to farm successors

目前，有必要考虑如何继续农业生产，并找到在日本维持农业活动的未来农场继承人。本研究通过文献综述、全国统计数据分析和对各地区村庄的深入个案研究，论证了日本农业的可持续性及其地域条件。案例研究涉及北海道的大规模大田作物种植、东北的大规模水稻种植、关东的蔬菜种植、北陆的大规模佃农水稻种植、土山的葡萄和桃子种植、东海的草莓种植、近畿的社区水稻种植、中国的奶牛养殖、四国的柑橘橙子种植、九州的小型混合农业。日本目前有以下五种类型的农场继承者。第一种是个体兼业农民，他们既务农，又外出打工。第二类是有生存能力的全职农民，他们打算通过接管兼职或老年农民的农业活动来扩大其农业经营规模。第三种是农业公司和农业生产合作社的农业产业化、商品化经营。第四类是社区农场，由乡村农民组成的农场支持小组组织。最后一种类型是农业服务机构，它们接管兼职农民或老年农民的部分农业活动。其中，第三类和第四类在不久的将来将变得更加重要。为了实现日本农业的可持续发展，必须改善日本的自然、经济、社会、文化和政治条件，培养具有活力的日本农业接班人。

At present it is necessary to consider the way to continue agricultural production and to find farm successors who maintain farming activities in the future in Japan. This study argues the sustainability of Japanese agriculture and its regional conditions by presenting studies based on a review of literature and on an analysis of statistics for the whole country and intensive case studies of villages in each district. The case studies are pursued on large-scale field crop farming in Hokkaido, on large-scale of rice farming in Tohoku, vegetable growing in Kanto, large-scale tenant rice farming in Hokuriku, grape and peach farming in Tosan, strawberry farming in Tokai, community rice farms in Kinki, dairy farming in Chugoku, mandarin orange farming in Shikoku, and small-scale mixed farming in Kyushu.The following five types of farm successors are found at present in Japan. The first type is individual part-time farmers who carry on both farming and working off-farm. The second type is viable full-type farmers who intend to expand the scale of their farm operations by taking over agricultural activities of part-time or elderly farmers. The third type is industrialized or commercialized farm operations involving farm companies and agricultural producers' co-operatives. The fourth type is community farms, organized by a farm support group made up of village farmers. The final and last type is agricultural services establishments that take over some parts of agricultural activities of part-time or elderly farmers. Among them, the third and forth types will become more important in the near future. In order to realize the sustainability of agriculture in Japan by these successors, natural, economical, social, cultural and political conditions must be improved and vigorous successors who lead Japanese agriculture must be grown.