Differentiation of Peasantry and Character of Social Classes in Rural Community of Present-day Japan

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Other Title
  • 現段階におけるわが国農民層分解と階級構成 : 1960年時を基準とする現状分析
  • ゲン ダンカイ ニ オケル ワガクニ ノウミンソウ ブンカイ ト カイキュウ コウセイ 1960ネンジ オ キジュン ト スル ゲンジョウ ブンセキ

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Abstract

The differentiation of peasantry in recent Japan, investigated at the point of 1960, is a process "very varied" and "uneven". Two facts are worthy of special notice. On the one side, though the ruin or proletarianization of bottom peasants is under process now, it is in the form that members of their families become resident part-time farmers, so that they cling to their extremely small-sized households, stopping halfway, not perfectly proletarianized, and staying precipitated at the bottom of rural community. On the other side, because the central line of differentiation is constantly shifting upward, the development as rich peasants is becoming more and more difficult for the top and middle strata of peasantry, many of them rather degrading to be poor peasants. The former fact that many of the bottom peasants are hired by non-agricultural branches as part-time farmers proves itself to be a process, not only of enlarging domestic market for monopolistic capitals, but of spreading in our rural community "the hidden form of the reserve army of unemployed," because it means the augmentation in the supply of labour forces among villagers. As such a differentiation goes on, part-time farmers engaged in subsidiary employment, necessarily come to compare their wage-level with that of urban proletarians. Still more, through the medium of this income from side jobs, such as wages, it makes the top and middle strata of peasantry incessantly and consciously watch the difference between their income from farming, or its part attributable to their labour, and the income-level of urban workers. Hereby, if we are to actualize the character of social classes in rural community correctly, it is indispensable to reexamine the ways of class determination. As for the determining factors of middle peasants, for example, we must take into consideration, for the broader viewpoint of national economy, the proportion between their income and the net earning of the urban wokers, or the labourers' wages of manufacturing industries in their districts, as well as narrower agricultural indexes. Thus, we get the calculation of class forces of rural community in the year 1960, concerning two districts, Tohoku and Kinki, respectively as follows ; Middle Peasants, 23.6% and 8.3%; Well-to-do Peasants, 2.7% and 0.4% (including Rich Peasants, 1.3% and 0.1%) ; Poor Peasants containing Rural Proletarians, 72.8% and 82%. Moreover, the percentage of this last half-proletarian poor peasantry is expected to increase hereafter. Corresponding to the above-mentioned development of the class structure, rural workers' unions have been organized actively since 1960-1961. It is necessary to recognize the significance of this movement as a form of the peasants' subjective countermeasure at the new-time point.

Journal

  • The Journal of Agrarian History

    The Journal of Agrarian History 7 (1), 1-25, 1964

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

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