Vegetable Growers and Labor Management in Kitano-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

In recent years Japanese vegetable growers tend to employ women who work to make up crops to finished products by arranging and packing. On the other hand it is seen in the same district that the oldmen and women specialize in growing the vegetables without the help of younger men. This cannot be adequately expanded from the available statistical data. The author attended to analyse horticulture districts which have various vegetable growers, and so selected Kitano-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture as a research field.The findings about the vegetable growing groups are as follows: There are 3 types of vegetable growing farms formed from mainly farming-labor family members: (1) The vegetable growers who manage the plastic green houses under fixed structures. They employ usually women, and sell the vegetables to chiefly the agricultural cooperative. (2) The full-time farm households (except above (1) type farms) consisting of young or middle-aged men, lacking fixed green houses. (3) The powerless labor group which consists of oldmen and women. This group's farmhouses sell the vegetables to merchants instead of the agricultural cooperative.In spite of being a small district, Kitano-cho has a large vegetable output which we can measure in the statistical data. Kitano-cho stands in the fertile alluvial plain on the Chikugo River. The common explanation for the large vegetable output comes on the good soil conditions of Kitano-cho. The author points out that Kitano-cho owes the recent development of vegetable production to many employed women. They work to make up the reaped vegetables to finished products by sorting out, putting in order, packing into boxes. Most of them are 40∼60 year-old housewives whose husbands work the offices or factories. As a result, we can interpret of the employed women promoting to increase the agricultural earnings in whole Kitano-cho town. But, the author emphasizes: there may be a hidden distinction between the two sexes in the lower wages for the employed women. Though the Japanese law prohibits to make the sexual distinction any working condition, not all the women can easily find work on favorable terms.In the above (3) group, the powerless growers tend to cultivate usually light weight and small-sized vegetables such as spinach, because of their powerless muscles. After reaping the vegetables, the powerless family members, the old or the women, make up the crops carefully into finished products by sorting out, putting in order, and packing into boxes.There are two land use types in the vegetable culture from the late fall to the spring. The first type is lightweight vegetale culture in plastic greenhouses either fixed structures or temporary small huts. The second type is heavy vegetable culture such as cabbage growing on open land. Just before the second group of vegetables mature, most growers sell them to merchants, leaving them to stand on the land. Then, the merchants harvest and take away them. As this way of trade saves the harvest labor of farmers themselves and improves effectively the land use productivity, many vegetable growers want to sell the crops standing while they work in the plastic greenhouses.