A Basis of the Rural Industry on the Foot of the Mountains

Abstract

The authors studied a basis of the rural industries, especially the connection between industry and agriculture, on the foot of the Kanto mountains. In this area the farmers cannot get a living only with the agriculture because of the low productivity under the bad natural conditions of the foot of the mountains, so they must have introduced some rural industries for the purpose of additional earning.The farmers' side-businesses in this area are sericulture, dairying, firewood and charcoal production, rural industries, and wage earning. The farmers cultivating above 1 Cho (1 hectare) are usually performing sericulture and dairying on one hand, and those performing the rural industries are, on the other hand, mainly cultivating 0.5-1 Cho or non-cultivating. The farmers under 0.5 Cho are rather getting their livelihood by wage earning.The rural industries in this area are Japanese-paper industry, furniture industry and silk industry. The number of workers in each factory are all less than ten, including women who are largely factory owner's family. Most factory owners are also engaged in the agriculture. As the scale of farming is closely related to the amount of the Japanese-paper production, the main producers of paper are 0.5-1 Cho farmers. The farmers under 0.5 Cho are subordinated to them in various social relations. In the silk and furniture industry, the factory owners having no arable land are the leading producers, and also those closely related with agriculture are subordinated to them.