Structural Changes of WORKSHARING in Local Labor Market and Reorganization of Agriculture

Research Project

Project/Area Number	04304021
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Co-operative Research (A)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Agro-economics
Research Institution	TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	SAKAI Junichi TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, APPLIED BIO-SCIENCES, PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (00005604)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	CHOH Kenji KYUSYU UNIVERSITY, ECONOMICS, PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (90038175) GOTOH Mitsuzoh MUSASHI UNIVERSITY, AGRI.ECONOMICS, PROFESSOR, 経済学部, 教授 (30013030) KUROYANAGI Toshio HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY, AGRI.ECONOMICS, PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (90001403) IMAMURA Naraomi TOKYO UNIVERSITY, AGRI.ECONOMICS, PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (60020525) INAMOTO Shiroh KYOTO UNIVERSITY, AGRI.ECONOMICS, PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (80026468)
Project Period (FY)	1992 – 1993
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1993)
Budget Amount *help	¥12,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥12,000,000) Fiscal Year 1993: ¥4,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,000,000) Fiscal Year 1992: ¥8,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,000,000)
Keywords	WORKSHARING / LOCAL LABOR MARKET / REORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE / CORE FARMER / LABOR ADJUSTMENT / PREDICTION OF LABOR FORCE / SUPPLY OF RURAL LABOR FORCE
Research Abstract	We have forecasted the direction of agriculture in the future and examined the applicability and the necessity of WORKSHARING concept to agriculture. We also have examined some considerations of the application and management adjustment of WORKSHARING. The major conclusions in this research could be summarized as follows. First, the greatest issue of the present Japanese agriculture is inducing new labor forces from the younger generation. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare the laws which promote young workers to enter the agricultural sector, to support them by financing, to make a new educational system of technology and management, and to prepare the institution of entry. Second, it is important to expand and produce opportunities of employment in rural community. Accordingly, agricultural WORKSHARING needs increase returns in production of agriculture and embark on new business, that agricultural coperative and local government mainly leads with using local resources. Third, an essential function of agricultural WORKSHARING is to resolve a seasonal labor gap between supply and demand. For example, it is ease to excharge surplus labor force among different specialized farms or areas by applying WORKSHARING in agriculture. Finally, some problems in farming with hired labor were clarified. The problems are the labor shortage, difficulties to assure the workers the long term employment, difficulties to adjust the allocation between farms. In order to solve these problems, the establishment of local management in adjustment to hired labor is needed.