宇野弘蔵の日本農業論

This paper reviews the study of Japanese agriculture by Kouzo Uno，who was a
prominent economist in postwar Japan. The main aim of this review is to put on his
theoretical examinations toward peasant behavior in prewar Japan and his framework for
analyzing Japanese agriculture from a global point of view.
One of the unique elements of his analysis of Japanese agriculture was that he
attributed the reason of high rents in tenant-farming prewar Japan not to the feudal system
but to the competition among owner-tenant-farmers. He argued that owner-farmers with
excess family labor would compete with each other to take on tenant land in order to get
additional income. They were able to endure the high rents of tenant land because of the
income gained from their own land. This behavior of owner-tenant-farmers was interpreted
as originated from peasant's aspirations，not to accumulate capital by employing labor，
but to expand their own land as a family property through family labor.
On the other hand，Uno also argued that capitalism which emerged in the 18th century
with a base in the manufacturing sector，created a world economic system which seperated
industrial countries and colonized agricultural countries，as agriculture was not an appropriate
sector for capitalist management. After the first World War，however，this
relationship was broken down partly because of the exess agricultural production in
agricultural countries，and partly because of the industrial countries' policy in pursuit of
the agricultural food self-sufficiency. This structural problem in the global trade of
agricultural products had strongly influenced the agricultural conditions and policy in each
of the industrial countries.
These two aspects of the agricultural economy identified by Kouzo Uno are still useful
in examining，from a theoretical viewpoint，the current situation of Japanese agriculture.