This paper presents a study of Japanese rural-urban migration based on Mabogunje's systematic scheme and discusses the rural development policy, especially as it pertains to mountainous areas.
In Japan, many mountain villages have experienced consistent and serious depopulation in the course of postwar economic development. However there have hardly been any theoretical studies which investigated the process of population decrease. We have today several studies which successfully make clear from an economic point of view the causes of the emigration from mountainous areas. They explain the causes by the economic decline of mountain villages and also the increasing demand for labor force in metropolitan areas. This framework seems to apply well to macroscopic studies, but not to microscopic studies. For the latter, Mabogunje's theoretical framework of rural-urban migration is more appropriate. Therfore we now propose to adopt this one and examine the existence of rural control sub-systems in Japan. In this study, stress was placed especially on Agricultural Cooperatives and town offices as the control sub-systems and the following issues were examined: 1) the reorganization process of agriculture under the direction of the Agricultural Cooperative and town office; 2) the spatial pattern of agriculture and farm management; 3) the trends among farmers in a settlement where agricultural production has been developed in recent years; 4) the control of the Agricultural Cooperative and town office over the rural-urban migration.
The study area, Oyama-machi is a mountain village which is located in Oita prefecture, northern Kyushu Island.
The following results were obtained:
1. In this village, since 1961 the Agricultural Cooperative and town office have worked together to make agricultural plans and to carry them out. As a result of their efforts, agricultural production, in particular of fruits and“Enokidake”mushrooms, has remarkably been increased and the local economy has been revitalizea. The success can be attributed to the following features of the plans: 1) the first project (Ume-Kuri movement) was carried out by the original finance of the town office; 2) The authorities encouraged farmers to cultivate crops besides rice, in particular plums and chestnuts; 3) agricultural plans aimed at raising all the farmers' incomes; 4) agricultural products were mainly shipped to the local market (northern Kyushu); 5) the improvement of the economic imbalance among settlements was considered in policy making. The point is that above mentioned issues differ greatly from the agricultural policy of the central government. The case of this town suggests the necessity for changing agricultural policy, especially for mountain farming.
2. A successful case such as Oyama-machi is very rare in mountain villages, but the author found that this village had several problems that were common to other villages. Dam construction in the 1960's caused the emigration or the increase of non-agricultural part-time jobs among farmers. Then the inducement of small factories in 1973 had a bad influence on agricultural production through the outflow of female workers from agriculture. Therefore the revitalization of the local economy could not easily be realized in spite of the efforts. “Enokidake” mushroom production which was set about in 1973 played an important role in the improvement of the economic condition and realized the return migration and the population increase. During this development process, the Agricultural Cooperative and town office strengthened their function as the rural control sub-system in rural-urban migration.
3. Oyama-machi has remarkably developed in recent years, but there is a wide difference in farm management among settlements and also among farm households.