Development - Kaitaku

The clearing of virgin or similarly barren land, mountains and fields in order to expand or increase production areas or settlement areas. This kind of land occupation and territorialization is essential for agricultural and pastoral peoples who are not nomadic or hunting peoples, so in a somewhat narrow sense it can be interpreted as synonymous with clearing virgin land for the purpose of farming and pastureland. However, the expansion of settlement areas for production on virgin land through the acquisition of mining and industrial resources, forests and timber, etc. is also a form of clearing.

It can be said that pioneering began with the emergence of humankind, but in the somewhat narrow sense mentioned above, its origins can be traced back to the era of farming without ploughing, when humans began cultivating land and cultivating agriculture, and the need arose to occupy and territorialize land. As humankind developed, the population increased, land for obtaining products became insufficient, and on the other hand, the products produced and consumed became more diverse, and the distribution mechanisms that accompanied them also developed. Due to various factors, pioneering required the support of a territory, a nation, an ethnic group, an organization, and capital. The discovery of the New World by Columbus at the end of the 15th century marked the start of large-scale, active pioneering that spread to continents across the Atlantic Ocean. In particular, the Western pioneering period in American history, which began in North America and saw European immigrants push the frontier from the east to the west, is famous, and this became the frontier spirit that strongly colored the spirit of American democracy. However, when the indigenous peoples had their own living space in the reclaimed land and had a certain culture and power, friction with the settlers occurred, as seen in the conflict with the Indians in North America and the European colonization of South America that began at the end of the 15th century, which revealed the settlers' armed aggression. The Australian continent did not experience such friction because the indigenous people were a small minority, and it started out as a penal colony, but in 1793, free immigrants landed there and the area was developed mainly for livestock farming. In Russia, which has vast undeveloped areas inland, such as the Urals and Siberia, a large-scale national development project was implemented after the establishment of a socialist state, and the development of areas with mining and industrial resources, as well as the associated development of farmland to support the lives of the residents, was promoted in a planned manner. In the Netherlands, which is often compared to Japan because of its dense population and small land area, development of the sea into land by drainage and reclamation was actively carried out.

From around the end of the 19th century, Latin American countries, primarily Brazil, began to welcome immigrants from overpopulated countries as pioneers to secure human resources for development, while Western capitalist nations adopted the plantation (colonial agriculture) method, in which low-wage local laborers were employed to develop large farms in tropical and subtropical regions. A large number of Japanese immigrants to Brazil were pioneers, and although their numbers are smaller than before World War II, they continue to this day. However, plantations are also rapidly declining along with the global movement for national independence.

Development in Japan has had a strong element of land reclamation due to the geographical conditions of a narrow island nation with rugged terrain, and the political conditions of national isolation that prevented Japan from seeking new land overseas for development. As early as the Nihon Shoki, there is a record that forests and wilderness were cultivated in the 40th year of Emperor Ojin's reign (around the 5th century). Since then, there have been many records of land reclamation, but due to the characteristics of the terrain with its many rivers, lakes and marshes, and paddy field agriculture, unique development projects have been carried out that involve irrigation, flood control, reclamation and land reclamation. Full-scale development in a broader sense began with the Hokkaido Development Plan, in which the Meiji government embarked on a national project to develop the undeveloped land of Ezo (Hokkaido). In addition, as a measure to alleviate the overpopulation caused by the agricultural depression that occurred in the early Showa period, the Manchuria-Mongolia Development Project was started in 1933 (Showa 8) to seek new lands for development in foreign territories. However, due to resistance from the indigenous people, the aggressive tendency of development led to armed immigration, and this tendency further deepened with the formation of the Manchuria Development Volunteer Corps and the Manchuria-Mongolia Development Youth Volunteer Corps after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. After the Second World War, the government implemented the "Guidelines for the Implementation of Urgent Development Projects" in 1945 (Showa 20) to secure food and combat unemployment, and focused on cultivating and reclamating the remaining uncultivated land. However, many farmers left the industry due to factors such as the increase in yield per hectare due to the advancement of agricultural technology, changes in the food preferences of the Japanese people, the increase in imported agricultural products, and the shift to an industrial producing country, and now it is time to fundamentally reconsider the meaning of development. The word "development" is often used in metaphorical or abstract terms that are far removed from its original meaning in the secondary and tertiary industries.

[Kaji Tatsuo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生産地や定住生活圏の拡大、増強のために、未開、あるいはそれに準ずる荒れ地、山野を切り開くこと。このような土地の占有化、領土化は、遊牧民族や狩猟民族でない、農耕、牧畜民族にとっては必要欠くべからざるものであるから、やや狭義には農牧地を目的として未開の土地を切り開く開墾と同義に解されることもある。しかし鉱工業資源、山林木材などの獲得から行われる、未開の土地への生産のための定住生活圏拡大も開拓である。

　開拓は人類の発生とともに始まったといっていいが、前述のやや狭義の意味からすれば、人類に耕作、栽培農業が始まり、土地の占有化、領土化の必要がおこった無犂(むり)農耕期に源を求められるだろう。人類の発展とともに人口は増大し、生産物獲得のための土地は不足し、しかも一方では生産消費物は多様化し、それに伴う流通機構も発達するなど、さまざまの要素から、開拓は一領国、国家、民族、組織団体、資本などの支持を必要とするようになった。15世紀末のコロンブスの新大陸発見を契機に、大西洋を越えた大陸までに広がる、規模の大きい、積極的な開拓が始まった。とくに北アメリカ大陸で開始された、ヨーロッパ移民による東部から西部に向かっての開拓地境界（フロンティア）を前進させる、アメリカ史上での西部開拓時代は有名で、これはアメリカ民主主義の精神を強く彩るフロンティア・スピリットとなった。しかし開拓地には先住民族が生活圏をもち、これが一定の文化や力をもつときには、開拓者との軋轢(あつれき)もおこり、北アメリカでのインディアンとの争い、15世紀末から始まる、開拓者側の武力的侵略をあらわにした、南アメリカ各地へのヨーロッパ人の植民開拓などの例もある。オーストラリア大陸は、先住民族が少数であったために、そのような軋轢もなく、初めは流刑植民地として出発したが、1793年には自由移民が上陸し、主として牧畜地としての開拓が展開された。自国の内陸にウラル、シベリア地区などの広大な未開発地をもつロシアでは、社会主義国家成立後、国家的な大規模な開拓事業が実行され、鉱工業資源地の開拓、それに伴う住民の生活を支える農地開拓などが、計画的に進められた。また人口稠密(ちゅうみつ)で国土が狭く、よく日本に比較されるオランダでは、干拓、埋立てによって、海を陸地化する開拓が積極的に行われてきた。

　開拓の人的資源として、19世紀末ごろからブラジルを主とするラテンアメリカ諸国は、人口過剰の国から開拓者としての移民を迎える方法をとったり、欧米の資本主義国家は、熱帯・亜熱帯地方で大規模農場の開拓を低賃金の現地労働者に行わせる、プランテーション（植民地農業）の方法をとったりした。ブラジル開拓移民は日本人も非常に多く、その数は第二次世界大戦前に比べて少ないが、いまもなお続いている。しかしプランテーションも世界的な民族独立機運とともに激減しつつある。

　日本における開拓は、地勢の険しい、狭い島国という地理的条件、海外に開拓地を求められない鎖国という政治的条件から、開墾的要素が強いものがある。古くは『日本書紀』応神(おうじん)天皇の40年（5世紀ごろ）に、山林原野が開墾させられたという記録がある。以後、開墾の記録はかなりあるが、河川、湖沼、湿地帯の多い地勢、水田農業などの特質から、灌漑(かんがい)、水防、干拓、埋立てなどを伴う独特の開拓事業が行われてきた。広い意味での本格的な開拓が行われ始めたのは、未開の地、蝦夷(えぞ)地（北海道）の開発を明治新政府が国家的事業として着手した、北海道開拓計画からである。また昭和初期に起こった農業恐慌による人口過剰の救済策として、開拓地を外地に求める満蒙(まんもう)開拓が1933年（昭和8）に開始されたが、先住民の抵抗などもあって、開拓に伴う侵略的傾向から、武装移民となり、37年の日中戦争の発生後に結成された満州開拓義勇隊、満蒙開拓青少年義勇軍に至って、ますますその色を濃くした。第二次世界大戦後、政府は食糧の確保、失業対策から、45年（昭和20）「緊急開拓事業実施要領」を施行し、残余の未耕地の開墾、干拓などに力を入れた。しかし、農業技術の進歩による反当り収穫率の増加、日本人の食糧嗜好(しこう)の変化、輸入農産物の増加、工業生産国への転換などの要素が原因となって、離農者が多くなり、現在では開拓という意味を根本的に見直さねばならない時期にきている。第二次、第三次産業における、本義を離れた比喩(ひゆ)的あるいは抽象的意味あいでの開拓ということばが多用されるようになっている。

［梶　龍雄］

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