May 10, 2012
Advocates of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact call for “a stronger agriculture in exports” in chorus. However, in the face of Japan’s declining food self-sufficiency rate to a level below 40%, a Tokyo farmers’ cooperative leader said, “Before being strong in exports, it is more important to focus on domestic consumption and increase domestic production.”
Akahata on May 10 ran an interview with Takahashi Koichi, head of the Tokyo Aoba agriculture cooperatives, as follows:
Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, with a population of more than 700,000, produces a variety of food items. Located in inner-metropolitan Tokyo, Nerima’s farmland decreased to 250 hectares from 450 hectares in the last 15 years.
Economic efficiency has taken priority in Japan since the era of high economic growth and through the “structural reform” policy promoted by former Prime Minister Koizumi Jun’ichiro. Agriculture was sidelined because it was considered to be unprofitable.
An average salaried worker’s household relying on one income provider lives on an annual income of around 5 million yen. On the other hand, a farming household earns only around 2 million yen, though all the family members may have to work in the fields. It is natural for farmers to think of turning away from farming to become salaried-company employees.
Farmland values in the 23 wards of Metropolitan Tokyo are so high that agricultural income alone cannot cover even the payments of real-estate tax and inheritance tax. Since farmers cannot survive only on their faming income, they often have to turn part of their farmland into apartment buildings or parking lots. This inflates the land value even higher, which leads farmers into having to pay more taxes. And then, they divert more of their farmland into housing development. This is the mechanism behind the vicious cycle of the continuous shrinking of urban farmland.
Urban farmland plays an important role in supplying fresh vegetables to city dwellers as “local production for local consumption”. At the same time, urban farmland protects the city’s natural environment, green spaces and water.
Eastern Japan, including Tokyo, experienced a major disaster in March last year. An expected massive quake in the near future will cut off transportation routes to Tokyo from rural areas. So, it is necessary to reaffirm the importance of urban agriculture as it can supply fresh produce to the center of Tokyo from within a very short distance.
Giant trading corporations are now acquiring access to vast farming areas abroad to import agricultural products made there to Japan. But, what if an upheaval in politics or a climate catastrophe occurs there? The source of food imports from such countries will become unavailable. The idea, ‘Buy cheap food from abroad,’ will be useless then.
Akahata on May 10 ran an interview with Takahashi Koichi, head of the Tokyo Aoba agriculture cooperatives, as follows:
Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, with a population of more than 700,000, produces a variety of food items. Located in inner-metropolitan Tokyo, Nerima’s farmland decreased to 250 hectares from 450 hectares in the last 15 years.
Economic efficiency has taken priority in Japan since the era of high economic growth and through the “structural reform” policy promoted by former Prime Minister Koizumi Jun’ichiro. Agriculture was sidelined because it was considered to be unprofitable.
An average salaried worker’s household relying on one income provider lives on an annual income of around 5 million yen. On the other hand, a farming household earns only around 2 million yen, though all the family members may have to work in the fields. It is natural for farmers to think of turning away from farming to become salaried-company employees.
Farmland values in the 23 wards of Metropolitan Tokyo are so high that agricultural income alone cannot cover even the payments of real-estate tax and inheritance tax. Since farmers cannot survive only on their faming income, they often have to turn part of their farmland into apartment buildings or parking lots. This inflates the land value even higher, which leads farmers into having to pay more taxes. And then, they divert more of their farmland into housing development. This is the mechanism behind the vicious cycle of the continuous shrinking of urban farmland.
Urban farmland plays an important role in supplying fresh vegetables to city dwellers as “local production for local consumption”. At the same time, urban farmland protects the city’s natural environment, green spaces and water.
Eastern Japan, including Tokyo, experienced a major disaster in March last year. An expected massive quake in the near future will cut off transportation routes to Tokyo from rural areas. So, it is necessary to reaffirm the importance of urban agriculture as it can supply fresh produce to the center of Tokyo from within a very short distance.
Giant trading corporations are now acquiring access to vast farming areas abroad to import agricultural products made there to Japan. But, what if an upheaval in politics or a climate catastrophe occurs there? The source of food imports from such countries will become unavailable. The idea, ‘Buy cheap food from abroad,’ will be useless then.
