The Survey on the Working Condition of Rural Areas after the Bubble Economy

Research Project

Project/Area Number	12630066
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	経済政策(含経済事情)
Research Institution	CHUO UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	OSU Sinji CHUO UNIVERSITY,FACULTY OF ECONOMICS,PROFESSOR, 経済学部, 教授 (20055221)
Project Period (FY)	2000 – 2002
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000) Fiscal Year 2002: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Keywords	Survey of Farm Household / Occupational Condition of Farm Family / Social Change of Farm Family / Part-time Farm Household / Rural Regional Labor Market / The Teaching of New Farm Commer / Ritired Farmer / The Return of the Farm Worker from the Non-Agricultural Works / 兼業農家 / 地域労働市場 / 最低限の保障
Research Abstract	We investigated the actual conditions of the agriculture of two villages in Ina district. This was the third survey after researching the same area in 1977 and 1989. The subject of this survey was to find out what conditions farming management and farmers' families were, including whether or not they are full-time or side-job farmers and what conditions their social security was. We compared and analyzed surveys at three points in time and were able to clarify the changes over time. The basic trend, long-term decline in agriculture, seems to have had no big change. However, we found some minor and subtle changes in farmers' families. This new change is due to the economic slump and serious unemployment.It seems that in the rural labor market, a sort of " dissolution" has begun , though the rural labor market used to be a closed one. "Inner closed completion wall" in the rural labor market is coming loose. By researching the details of farmers' families ,their labor and the farming management, we traced the change and confirmed its meaning and degree of the change. There are two flows of work force in the labor market :from agricultural sector to non-agricultural sector and from non- agricultural sector to agricultural sector. The former has had a steady flow for a long time, but recently the latter has slightly taken off. We could say that there has relatively been a flow back to agricultural districts from other cities. We also analyzed whether the new flow back to agricultural district had a effective role boosting the rural economy and society, and easing serious nemployment. Furthermore , we verified whether the agricultural district played the role of "shock absorber" for unemployment. Beyond that, we researched two types of agricultural newcomers. One is ex-workers from other cities. The other is workers who have lived in the district and commute to the work place. We also checked the effectiveness and the