The purpose of this paper is to delineate some characteristics of recent changes of agric-ulture in the Hirose section of Toyooka village and the Ryuchi section of Hamakita City, which are both in Shizuoka Prefecture. It should be noted that the physical location of these two areas are in the downstream region of the Tenryu River. An important given factor in this study is the central government's allotment quota of rice growing acreages. Constructions of two large scale dams, the one installed at Sakuma in 1956 and the other at Akiba in 1957, in the upperstream of the Tenryu reduced the supply of materials such as gravels, sands, and silts to the downstream, in comparison to the supply obtained prior to construction. One results was the lowering of the riverbed. Another conributing factor was the removal of existing river supplied materials for urban construction in recent years. The overall result consisted of lowering of the ground water and poorly preserved water condi-tions in the paddy fields of the nearby areas. To somewhat alleviate this problem, some local governments introduced a “Paddy Field Improvement Project”, which called for replacement of gravels immediately below the top soils by old alluvial soils, obtained from the slopes of hills nearby. Many factors have to be taken into account when considering actions taken by individual farmers and/or groups of farmers in relation to decisions made by the local governments. Some of these factors are; (1) the size of the area under cultivation ; (2) the incentive of the individual farmer; (3) urban influence. For example ; Ryuchi is closer to Hamamatsu than Hirose; and (4) degree of enthusiasm and capital investment in administrative pro-grams by local governments. In Hirose, the village administration originated and utilized to a large extent, the “Paddy Field Improvement Project”, which brought increased rice production per unit of land and previous unused land under cultivation. As one result of the above, it was assumed that number of owner-farmers (whose sole occupation is farming) would increase as opposed to the previous situation. Taking into consideration of political factors and administration enthusiasm, this village would be used as a model for other local governments. In Ryuchi, on the other hand, the “Paddy Field Improvement Project” fell behind the expectations of the local government, because of lack of cooperation between the local government and the farmers. The allotment quota in Ryuchi was easily achieved, be-cause unused acreage has increased in recent years. The lack of a choice of local impro-vement programs resulted in the diversification of agriculture by individual and groups of farmers. One problem, which confronted the agricultural development of Ryuchi, was the urban influence of nearby Hamamatsu City. Many job oppotunities resulted in the break-up of full-time farmers into part-time farmers. The administrative effort of the Toyooka village resulted only in a slight rise in income of farmers. In both areas, if we take full-time farmers, for example, we find that both followed the same process of occupational specialization, due to the overall Japanese economic syst-em. As a result of the above, it can be concluded that local government assistance is limited under the present agricultural system.