Following the Second World War, a massive land reclamation project to boost Japan’s rice production capacity led to the transformation of the shallow lagoon of Hachirogata in Akita Prefecture into a seventeen-thousand-hectare expanse of farmland. In 1964, the village of Ogata-mura was founded on the empoldered land inside the lagoon and nearly six hundred pioneers from across the country were brought to settle there. The village was to be a model of a new breed of highly mechanized, efficient rice agriculture; however, the village’s purpose was jeopardized when the demand for rice fell, and the goal of creating an egalitarian farming community was threatened as individual entrepreneurialism took root and as the settlers became divided into political factions that to this day continue to struggle for control of the village. Based on seventeen years of research, this book explores the process of Ogatamura’s development from the planning stages to the present. An intensive ethnographic study of the relationship between land reclamation, agriculture, and politics in regional Japan, it traces the internal social effects of the village’s economic transformations while addressing the implications of national policy at the municipal and regional levels.
Inhoudsopgave
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Village and the Issues
Putting Ogata-mura under the Lens
Problems – Community Planning, Transition Economy, and Conflict
Chapter 1. Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics in Japan
Agricultural and Regional Policy
Carrots from Heaven
Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics – Reflections
Chapter 2. Reclamation and the Old Social Order
Hachirōgata Before the Reclamation
The Reclamation
Settlement
Loneliness, Depression and Tensions
The Cooperative Groups
Social Organization Beyond the Group Level
The End of the Settlement Phase
Utopia Lost?
Chapter 3. The Storm and the Aftermath
Dark Clouds on the Horizon
The Deluge
Why did the Clouds Burst?
The Beautification Campaign Accelerates
Big Plans and High Hopes
The Sociopolitical Costs of Cosmetic Surgery
Chapter 4. Rice: Alliances, Institutions, Frictions
Rice Marketing in the Village
Business and Politics in an Ogata-mura Neighborhood
Rice Farming and Business Intertwined
Chapter 5. Politics and the New Social Order
The Interplay of Opposing “Parties”
The Election of 2000
Developments Following the Election of 2000
The Election of 2004
A Fracture Forms in the Opposition Party
The Election of 2008
The Changing Political Landscape
Chapter 6. What Can We Learn from Ogata-mura?
Plans, Policies, and Politics – The Big Picture
Plans, Policies, and Politics – The Small Picture
A Model Farming Village?
Bibliography
Index
Over de auteur
Donald C. Wood is an Associate Professor at Akita University, where he has worked since earning a Ph D in cultural anthropology at the University of Tokyo in 2004. He is currently editor of the Research in Economic Anthropology book series.
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