THE JAPANESE LAND REFORM: ITS EFFICACY AND LIMITATIONS

Land Reform in Japan has been regarded as one of the most successful and drastic in the world. But it has been confronting the new phase of structural problems which requires resolution from the point of view of the long-run prospect of agriculture and national economy. Policies for establishment of owner-farmers introduced by the reform gave an incentive to high productivity and secured the stability of the farmer's household. However, since the stage of so-called High Economic Growth, the small-scale farming and fragmentary holding of arable land have resulted in a bottleneck to the further development of the Japanese economy.