Tenant Farming In Japan Essay
1439 Words6 Pages
Similar to what Lake Tai is called the land of fish and rice, Japan, sharing a similar climate and geography, is also heavily dependent on these two agricultural products. Rice and fish were the main agriculture product in Japan and people eat them on daily basis.
Among other crops, rice is the most popular crop in Japan. This is true for almost all eastern Asia regions. Due to its flavor and various usage, Asian people do not like barley or corn but much prefer rice. As for rice, Japanese people could use it to make many dishes, including sushi, porridge, or fried rice. During the 1800s, Japanese people used a special approach called tenant farming system to grow these crops in order to promote efficiency, Tenant farming system, also known as landlordism, is similar to a slave system in ancient Europe or America that the tenant is owned by the landlord and had to make payment to the owner periodically through a fixed portion of crops. This system was quite effective as tenants had to work hard or they would not be able to hand in the crops. As the result, Japan accounted for 15% of world rice production.
During the Meiji period (1870), Japanese government drastically increased tax rate in order to gain revenue. As the chain reaction, landlords in Japan started to demand larger portion of rice from their tenants, which led to tenants’ inability to pay the rent. Therefore, many of these tenants’ wives and daughters were sent to textile mills as a form of their rent. Later on, population in Japan started to grow rapidly, which lessen the farmable areas in Japan. Additionally, the younger generation who preferred other occupations did not really like the farming practice, further decreasing population of farmers in Japan. Althoug...
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