Are farming companies emerging from non-agricultural sector better managed than conventional farms in Japan?

Conventional Japanese farmers have faced a longstanding challenge in adapting to a changing business environment. While the deregulation of the Agricultural Land Act in 2009 has led to the entry of companies from the non-agricultural sector into agriculture, another reason seems to be the general capitalisation of the agricultural industry into the wider economy. However, few management studies have analysed these new companies. An important question is whether the corporatisation of farm business is accompanied by the modernisation of farm management techniques. Our study examines crop-farming companies and compares farm management styles of these newly emerging farming entities with those of family-farmbased entities. It is based on 124 questionnaire responses from a sample of 577 posted in 2016. The questions covered human and organisational factors, as well as operational factors. We find no notable advantages in the way companies are managed. Probably because of their inexperience and low dependence on the farming business in terms of sales, our comparison highlights improvements that they need to make for further modernisation of farm management. Both types of entities face similar challenges in raising managerial capabilities.