THE MIGRATORY LABOURERS OF IWATE PREFECTURE

Abstract

In this article, the term migratory labourers is limited to mean the farmers who go away from their home villages or towns to other regions in Japan in order to work for a certain period, keeping their homes as the base of their living. The writer has calculated by city, town and vilage, (1) the percentageof migratory laboures to the total number of farmers (y) in the year A g 930_??_Aug. 1951 (Fig. 1), (2) the percentages of paddy fields (x1), of full-time farmers (X2) and of small-sized farmers with acreage less than 5 tans (_??_1.2 acres) (X3), etc., and (3) the correlation coefficients between y and X1, X2, X3, etc. 1. The chief factor in the migration of labourers is the low I ercentage of full-time farmers. The subordinate factor is the low percentage of paddy fields The percentage of paddy fields has, however, far less influence on the migration of labourers than it does in Shikoku, and the percentage of small-sized farniess has little bearing on it. These show that the theory regarding the migration of labourers in Shikoku forwarded by M. Kishinoto in 1953 does not necessarily fit the case in Irate prefecture. 2. On the other hand, there is a long non-productive period in winter in Irate, due to the long-lasting snow cover which lessens the farmers' income, by land production and drives them into an unoccupied period. The environment like this differs from that of Sikoku. The length of the duration of unoccupied period has such a correlation with the migration. of labourers as. is indicated by r=0.32. This tells that the migration of labourers is more affected by the natural conditions than by the factors as mentioned above. 3. The areas with more than 10% of migratory labourers are as follows (Fig. 1): (1) Coastal belt of Sanriku (Iwate). In this area, the chief factors in the migration of labourers are the low percentage of full-time farmers and. the high percentage of small-sized farmers. (2) Kitakami highlands. The factors are the long-lasting snow cover, the abundance of resultant unoccupied labour and the low income by poor hand production. (3) Kitakami valley. In the villages and towns in the Kitakami valley, the percntages of full-time farmers and paddy fields are both high, and that of small-sized farmers low. Yet the percentage of migratory farmers is high. This may be also ascribed to the long-lasting snow cover which produces an. abundant surplus of unoccupied labour.