Japan Press Weekly

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2008 September 17 - 23 [AGRICULTURE]

Rice farmers’ income as expressed in hourly wages is 1/4 of minimum wage

The average Japanese rice farmers compensation for family labor as expressed in hourly wages was 179 yen, or about 1.7 dollars, in 2007, down 77 yen from 2006, amounting to a quarter of the nation’s average minimum wage.

The Agriculture Ministry revealed this in response to an inquiry by Akahata.

Due to sharp declines in the producer price of rice, family farmers’ net earnings per 60 kilograms of rice decreased 10-20 percent to 10,000-12,000 yen in 2007 from 2006.

As for compensation for family labor by the size of family farm, family farmers with acreage smaller than one ha, the largest group of family farmers, the compensation did not even cover the labor cost. Family farmers with 2-3 ha earned 411 yen per hour. Only a few percent of large-scale farmers with acreage more than 5 ha earned 1,500 yen per hour.

In its “agriculture revitalization plan” published this past March, the Japanese Communist Party proposed a price support system to make up for shortfalls in the market for rice, wheat, and soybeans growers, an income support system to make up for environmental disadvantages for rice growers, and the same level of income support for rice farmers who grow feed grains, of which the self-sufficiency rate is low.