The modernization of Japan's agriculture: some lessons for her Southeast Asian neighbors
1981
Javier, E. Q.
As the developing countries struggle to transform their agriculture to keep pace with their burgeoning food needs and hopefully to create a surplus for further economic growth, they look up to the experiences of the more economically developed societies for the appropriate paradigms of development. Among the developed countries, Japan's agrarian conditions before modernization comes closest to the conditions obtained in the developing countries of Southeast Asia. Japan has earned the distinction of being the first Asian country to attain modernization of her agriculture both in terms of agricultural productivity per unit area and in terms of labor productivity. What makes Japan's experience very meaningful to her neighbors in Southeast Asia is that she achieved modernization under the constraints of fragmented land holdings, high population pressure, widespread tenancy, and relying essentially on domestic resources, the very constraints under which most of the developing countries persevere at present. Some of the more positive and apparently transferable features of the historical development of Japanese agriculture were discussed. Some limitations of the Japanese experience were printed out as possible points of departure from the Japanese model of agricultural development which the developing countries in the region may pursue.
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