Japanese Inter-Prefectural Rice Movements

Abstract

J APANESE rice production has registered some impressive gains since 1955. Average rice harvests in the years 1946-1954 showed no appreciable increase over those of prewar, and the 1953 crop was the smallest since 1946 as a result of abnormally low temperatures during the growing season. However, in a dramatic reversal of form, the 1955 harvest set an all-time Japanese record of 82,565,000 koku,1 far exceeding the previous high of 70,829,000 koku reached in 1933. Succeeding harvests have been smaller than in 1955 but much larger than in 1933, showing a gain of about 30 per cent over average harvests of the 1930's. These six successive bumper crops are convincing evidence that Japanese rice production has moved upward to a new plateau. A fraction of the rice increases have been created artificially by statistical manipulation. In 1940, Japan had an estimated 3,199,984 cho2 of paddy, but by 1946 the acreage had shrunk to 2,859,884 cho, a level that was maintained with only modest change over the following decade (2,871,033 cho in 1955).3 While some losses did result from land use shifts, most of the decrease was attributable to faulty government records based upon paddy acreage and rice crop data collected in connection with the operations of a government-directed compulsory crop delivery program. Since this program was very stringent during wartime and the immediate postwar, farmers tended to under-report their rice acreage and yields. Realizing this fact, the national government sponsored surveys during 1951-1955 which showed that no decline in acreage had really occurred and that the 1956 paddy acreage was 3,348,143 cho, or 537,110 cho more than was estimated in 1955 and 148,203 cho more than in 1940.4 The revised paddy acreage figure serves as the basis for rice crop estimates since 1957 and for an upward revision of the originally reported 1955 (from 79,000,000 koku to 82,565,000 koku) and 1956 (from 69,758,000 koku to 72,658,000 koku) rice crops. However, most of the increases are attributable to technical advances in Japanese agriculture.5 One-third of the paddy acreage has improved irrigation or drainage facilities, and one-half the acreage is planted with new, improved rice strains that have greater resistance to disease and weather extremes. Early-maturing rice strains have been adopted widely in western Japan as a means of avoiding the nor-