Underemployed Japanese put to work on farms

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April 16, 2009

For Young Japanese, It's Back to the Farm

By HIROKO TABUCHI

YOKOSHIBAHIKARI, Japan — A motley group of unlikely farmers descended on the

countryside here one recent Sunday, fresh towels around their necks, shiny boots

on their feet.

" This is harder than it looks, " said Tatsunori Kobayashi, a spiky-haired janitor

from Tokyo Disney Resort, as he tromped through a mustard spinach patch with a

seed planter, irregular furrows stretching out behind him.

He is part of Japan's 2,400-strong Rural Labor Squad, urban trainees dispatched

to the countryside under a pilot program to put Japan's underemployed youth to

work tilling its farms.

Started last month as part of Prime Minister Taro Aso's stimulus plans, the

program stems from growing concern about both the plight of Japan's younger

workers and the dismal state of farms. In a play on words, the squad's name in

Japanese — Inaka-de-hatarakitai — is also its rallying cry: " We want to work in

the countryside! "

The predicament of Japanese in their 20s and 30s dates back to the lost decade

of the 1990s, when many failed to find good, stable work. Today, a

disproportionate number endure low-wage jobs — a potential portent for America's

students and first-time job seekers plunging into a shallow job market in the

United States.

As the Japanese recession has worsened, younger workers have taken the brunt of

wage cuts and layoffs, especially in manufacturing. Now the government views the

slump — Japanese exports fell almost 50 percent year-to-year in February — as a

chance to divert idle labor to sectors that have long suffered from worker

shortages, like agriculture. Many young Japanese, for their part, have shown a

growing interest in farming as disillusionment rises over the grind of city jobs

and layoffs. Agricultural job fairs have been swamped with hundreds of

applicants; one in Osaka attracted 1,400 people.

" Young people want jobs, and farmers need the extra hands, " said Isao Muneta, an

agriculture ministry official who coordinates the 1.3 billion yen ($13 million)

program, part of a larger stimulus package. " It's the perfect match. "

Whether it will save Japan's deteriorating economy is something else. " Rural

communities could benefit from an influx of young people, " said Masashi Umemoto

at the National Agricultural Research Center. " But it's unrealistic to look to

agriculture as a solution to the country's unemployment problems. "

He added, " There aren't enough farming jobs. "

Like the French and the British, whose industrial societies have deep (if

distant) rural roots, the Japanese have long romanticized life in the

countryside. Only 4 percent of Japan's labor force works in agriculture, but a

reverence for the country's rice-farming heritage is strong. Japanese children

grow up with warnings not to waste a single grain of rice, out of respect for

farmers' labor. In an annual ritual, the Japanese emperor makes an offering of

rice harvested from paddies within the palace grounds to Shinto deities. And in

international trade talks, rice remains the most sensitive crop for Japan.

Beneath this romanticism, however, is a stark reality. Japanese farming is a

picture of inefficiency, and the rural work force is graying. A decline in rice

prices has hit farms hard — only the largest farms still turn a profit from

harvesting rice, forcing farmers to take on extra jobs. The farms most desperate

for workers do not have the means to pay for new recruits. Agricultural jobs pay

as little as $1,500 a month and are often seasonal.

Overgrown plots abound in Yokoshibahikari, a town of 26,000 about 43 miles east

of Tokyo.

" We're all old folk and thankful to have young people come help us, " said

Hitoshi Suzuki, 57, and head of a cooperative of family farms that share

equipment to reduce overhead costs. (One of the cooperative's farmers is 83.)

Rural communities themselves effectively shut out new blood by making it

difficult for outsiders to set up their own farms, says Takayuki Yoshioka, a

coordinator at the nonprofit organization that runs the Yokoshibahikari program.

People with no local links who want to buy farmland are subjected to a vetting

process by local farming committees that can take years.

" I believe the possibilities are limitless in agriculture, " said Mr. Yoshioka,

who is interested in starting his own farm. " But there are also big barriers. "

Shinji Akimoto, who until recently worked in information technology, is not

intimidated.

Fearful of constant staff cuts as business deteriorated, Mr. Akimoto, 31, quit

his job last month and days later started training in Yokoshibahikari. His

three-day, government-financed training program has been a succession of

whirlwind lessons in rice and vegetable planting, cleaning pig sties and feeding

cattle.

" I had nothing much to lose, and in times like these, I felt I needed to learn

to make my own living, " he said. He chuckled and twirled a finger in the air.

" Did you know pigs really do have curly tails? "

Mr. Akimoto's team of 10 is a hodgepodge: the Disney janitor, a recently

laid-off landscape artist and several college students. They all get 7,000 yen a

day, about $70, and free food and board.

They all shared a common complaint: there was no convenience store nearby for

drinks and snacks. One trainee persuaded a farmer to lend him his light truck,

so he could get cigarettes.

" My friends think I'm crazy for coming here, " said Tomoka Inoue, 20, a

management major who said she was widening her job search to include farming.

" But I think people are becoming more aware of where our food comes from, and I

want to get more involved with that. "

Experts say the program's wider economic impact will be limited in the face of

the severe challenges facing Japan's economy: gross domestic product shrank at

an annualized rate of 12.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and

unemployment is at a three-year high of 4.4 percent.

But the government is going ahead with plans to begin yearlong farm intern

placements later this year. Increasing agricultural employment is part of a new

$154 billion stimulus package that Mr. Aso announced last week.

Mr. Kobayashi, the janitor at Disney, says his time as a trainee has helped him

decide he wants to take up farming leeks, this town's main crop. He intends to

take another week off to train with a local leek farmer, Yoshinori Yamazaki, who

is looking for someone to take over his farm.

" This is just too perfect, " Mr. Kobayashi gushed. He said leeks were his

favorite vegetable, and he had read that they were easy for beginners to grow

and bring in a stable income.

But Mr. Yamazaki, the leek farmer, was skeptical. " You can't learn farming in

just a year, or even several years. It's a lifetime profession, " he said. " I

worry this is just a fad. I'm worried that when the economy picks up, they'll

all flock back to the city. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/global/16farmer.html