The Historical Significance of Yanagita's "Agricultural Policy"

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Other Title
  • 柳田国男著『農業政策』の経済思想史的意義 : 一極集中下の地域経済
  • ヤナギタ クニオチョ ノウギョウ セイサク ノ ケイザイ シソウシテキ イギ

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Abstract

It is well-known that Yanagita Kunio was much concerned about agricultural policy. In this article, I should like to examine the historical significance of the textbook "Agricultural Policy". It was published in 1910, and used at his lecture. After the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese Government established a policy calld Chiho Kairyo Undo (Local Reform Movement). It was a policy to strengethen the town-and-village finance by consolidating public property and small shrines. Farmers' lives were greatly influenced by that movement, because it resulted in the centralization of the local economy and local ethics. But Yanagita Kunio, who had travelled throghout Japan and had seen the farmers' lives closely, criticized this policy and presented an alternative plan. From his observations, he discovered that there were many "local small markets" in the Edo era, and farmers sold and bought their products at that market. But after the Meiji Restoration, as the government began to enforce a centralizing transport policy, many "local small markets" were destroyed. Instead, commodities produced in big cities began to sold all over Japan. This meant that Japan's market structure had come to be unipolar centralized. In other words, local towns and villages lost their market independence. So, Yanagita's alternative plan was a regionalistic one. It meant the revival of "the local small markets". For that purpose, farmers should sell their products in the neighborhood. He expected it to be a cooperative movement. The ideal cooperative association should be operated for its neighbors. To attain this purpose, farmers should realize their own ethics. He thought that farmers had the spirit of self-help and cooperatism which was native to Japan in the past, but now, they have lost it. The conclusion of my article is that Yanagita's alternative policy was an inner criticism of goverment policy. Government took a centralizing policy, and Yanagita intended a regionalistic approach.

Journal

  • The Journal of Agrarian History

    The Journal of Agrarian History 35 (1), 1-13, 1992

    The Agrarian History Society (Renamed as The Political Economy and Economic History Society)

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