Revitalising rurality under the neoliberal transformation of agriculture: Experiences of re-agrarianisation in Japan

• Published in: Journal of rural studies 2018-07, Vol.61, p.290-301
• Main Authors: Hisano, Shuji, Akitsu, Motoki, McGreevy, Steven R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advanced farming entities; Agricultural development; Agricultural economics; Agricultural policy; Agriculture; Case studies; Community farming enterprises; Cooperation; Economic change; Economic conditions; Endogenous; Farming; Geopolitics; Japanese agrarian studies; Neoliberalism; Re-agrarianisation; Re-peasantisation; Rural areas; Rural conditions; Rurality; Sociocultural factors; Socioeconomic change; Socioeconomic factors; Transformation; Uniqueness
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.01.013

Rural places are continually experiencing socio-economic change and the conceptual frameworks of re-de-agrarianisation and re-de-peasantisation were devised to explain agrarian transformations in a broad sense. Following empirical studies from other geographical contexts, this paper revisits the concepts of re-de-agrarianisation and re-de-peasantisation through the historical, theoretical, and empirical lens of agrarian and rural change in Japan. After detailing the circumstances of post-WWII agricultural reconstruction and current rural conditions, as well as outlining the development of the field of Japanese agrarian studies and a selection of the endogenous theories within to explain transformations, contemporary examples and a case study are used to provide a rich contextual account of Japan’s experiences of re-agrarianisation and re-peasantisation. We find that economic, social, cultural, geopolitical, and biophysical conditions in Japan have shaped the processes of agrarian change and bring into focus particular uniqueness of endogenous responses to de-agrarianisation and neoliberal agricultural trends. In particular, socio-cultural pressure to cooperate and identify with local community and place allows “peasant-like” elements to persist despite the strong push toward entrepreneurial and corporate farming. Understanding these trajectories of the transformation of Japanese agriculture would then challenge and/or validate the applicability of commonly accepted definitions of de-re-agrarianisation and de-re-peasantisation. •The experiences of Japan's agricultural development provide a rich context for re-examining de- re- binary categorisation.•Rural change in Japan indicates that the boundaries between development pathways and farming modes are varying and blurred.•The de-peasantisation process typical to the development of a stratified agriculture was largely avoided in Japan.•A re-agrarianisation at all costs approach to stem the decline of agriculture has engendered hybrid-moded farming entities.