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Agricultural land reform in postwar Japan : experiences and issues

Author

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  • Kawagoe, Toshihiko

Abstract

Immediately after World War II, drastic agricultural land reform was implemented in Japan. This reform has been considered one of the most successful agrarian reform projects in the world. It is often said that the reform gave former tenant farmers new incentives, which contributed to the rapid growth of Japanese agriculture, but little empirical evidence has been presented to support that assertion. Most past studies discussed the impact of reform without distinguishing between political and economic issues. How was the agrarian structure changed by reform? What kind of economic and political issues were raised, solved, or remained intact? The author explores the political and economic motives for reform and the conditions that allowed such drastic reform to succeed. He also identifies economic issues that were inoculated by the reform, and chronologically traces reform's progress. His conclusion: Japanese land reform succeeded politically but, as an industrial policy, brought serious economic problems. Japan's reform experience offers precious lessons to developing countries now intent on implementing agrarian reform. Land reform in Japan demolished a class structure based on landholding. Landlords were no longer supreme and rural society was restructured, so the rural population became supportive of the ruling conservative party. But land reform had little effect on agricultural production. Land ownership was transferred from landlords to tillers of the soil, and small tenant farmers became small owner-cultivators, with no apparent change in farm size. The traditional agricultural production structure from prewar Japan remained. Agriculture grew after the war, but not because of land reform--possibly because of greater technical knowledge and the recovery of critical inputs, such as knowledge and the recovery of critical inputs, such as fertilizer, thatwere in short supply during the war. The income and standard of living of rural people may have improved, but it is not clear to what extent land reform contributed to capital formation in agriculture. More empirical work is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Kawagoe, Toshihiko, 1999. "Agricultural land reform in postwar Japan : experiences and issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2111, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2111
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Magalhaes, Marcelo Marques de & Souza Filho, Hildo Meirelles de & Sousa, Miguel Rocha de & Silveira, José Maria F. J. da & Buainain, Antonio Marcio, 2011. "Land Reform in NE Brazil: a stochastic frontier production efficiency evaluation," Brazilian Journal of Rural Economy and Sociology (Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural-RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 49(1), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Tasso Adamopoulos & Diego Restuccia, 2014. "The Size Distribution of Farms and International Productivity Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1667-1697, June.
    3. Chiaki M. Akiyama & Yuki Akiyama, 2019. "Spatial distribution and relocation potential of isolated dwellings in Japan using developed micro geodata," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 605-621, June.
    4. Yutaka ARIMOTO & Tetsuji OKAZAKI & Masaki NAKABAYASHI, 2010. "Agrarian Land Tenancy In Prewar Japan: Contract Choice And Implications On Productivity," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(3), pages 293-318, September.
    5. Shenggen Fan & Connie Chan‐Kang, 2005. "Is small beautiful? Farm size, productivity, and poverty in Asian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 135-146, January.
    6. Magalhães, Marcelo Marques de & Filho, Hildo Meirelles de Souza & Sousa, Miguel Rocha de & Silveira, José Maria F. J. da & Buainain, Antônio Márcio, 2011. "Land Reform in NE Brazil: a stochastic frontier production efficiency evaluation," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 49(1), January.
    7. Majumdar, Sumon & Mukand, Sharun W, 2013. "Institution Building and Political Economy," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 131, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Jingzhong Ye & Lu Pan, 2017. "Concepts and Realities of Family Farming in Asia and the Pacific," Working Papers id:11938, eSocialSciences.
    9. Jingzhong Ye & Lu Pan, 2016. "Concepts and realities of family farming in Asia and the Pacific," Working Papers 139, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    10. Hye Kyung Lim & Jaan-Henrik Kain, 2016. "Compact Cities Are Complex, Intense and Diverse but: Can We Design Such Emergent Urban Properties?," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 95-113.
    11. A. Ford Ramsey & Tadashi Sonoda & Minkyong Ko, 2023. "Intersectoral labor migration and agriculture in the United States and Japan," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(3), pages 364-381, May.
    12. Ramsey, A. Ford & Sonoda, Tadashi & Ko, Minkyong, 2021. "Aggregation and Threshold Models of Intersectoral Labor Migration: Evidence from the United States and Japan," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315110, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Raffaella Castagnini & Klaus Deininger & Maria A. Gonzalez, 2004. "Comparing land reform and land markets in colombia: impacts on equity and efficiency," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3258, The World Bank.
    14. Yutian Liang & Jiaqi Zeng & Shangqian Li, 2022. "Examining the Spatial Variations of Land Use Change and Its Impact Factors in a Coastal Area in Vietnam," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.

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