An economic analysis of agricultural land use in Japan

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14993
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Agricultural science in management and economy
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Ito Junichi 京都大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (80356302)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 北野 慎一 京都大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (20434839)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 農地貸借 / 耕作放棄 / 取引費用 / 農家以外の農業事業体 / 農業の比較劣位化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Japanese agriculture has stagnated since the late 1980s, setting in motion a steady process of farmland readjustment. The notable consequence is an increase in the number of people who quit working on the land and a concurrent decline in cultivated farmland. Our econometric analysis suggests that it is not so much farm households but rather non-farm household entities that are deeply involved in the appearance of this relationship over the past two decades. In particular, non-farm household producers play an important role as lessees not only by facilitating land market development but also by pre-empting farmland abandonment. Land-holding non-farm households, another relevant group of actors, are significant contributors to the supply side of farmland. Our analysis also offers unambiguous evidence that the Landholding Corporations serve an intermediary role in facilitating the exchange of land use rights.

Free Research Field

農業経済学