Cultivation rights

Japanese: 耕作権 - こうさくけん

Generally speaking, it refers to the rights that a cultivator has when cultivating the land. Therefore, it includes everything from the right to cultivate that an owner-farmer has to his/her own land to the right to cultivate (tenant rights) that a tenant farmer has to his/her rented land. However, in reality, the term "right to cultivate" is often used synonymously with "tenant rights."

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

Establishment of cultivation rights

Before the Land Reform

Before the land reform, nearly half of the cultivated land in Japan was tenanted, and small-scale farmers who more or less rented land from landlords accounted for 70% of all farmers, and the power of landlords was dominant due to the stagnation of the surplus population in rural areas. Tenant farmers were required to pay high rent in kind for the rented land from landlords, and their cultivation rights were extremely weak. Tenant contracts were often verbal, not written, and the landlord often terminated the contract and took the land unilaterally. The tenant movement, which began in earnest from the 1920s, was also fiercely fought, demanding that landlords "establish cultivation rights" as well as reducing or exempting tenant rent. The government could not ignore the situation, and attempted to strengthen tenant rights to some extent by enacting the "Tenant Law" in the 1920s, but this plan was abandoned in the early 1930s due to strong resistance from landlords and conservative forces. However, the plunge into wartime, starting with the Second Sino-Japanese War, made it necessary to strengthen the cultivation rights of tenant farmers, who were the main producers of rice and other food, in order to increase production. In 1938 (Showa 13), the Farmland Adjustment Law was enacted, which strengthened the cultivation rights of tenant farmers by, for example, granting them the right to assert their land against third parties even if the lease agreement was not registered, and restricting the ability of landlords to terminate the lease agreement.

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

After the Land Reform

The land reforms that followed the Second World War significantly strengthened peasant rights by dismantling the landlord system and creating widespread self-sufficiency. Many former tenant farmers became self-sufficient farmers with full rights to cultivate their land.

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

Enactment of the Farmland Law

Furthermore, the land reform allowed village landlords to hold an average of one hectare of land nationwide, which meant that some tenanted land remained after the reform. However, even for this tenanted land, tenant farmers' cultivation rights were significantly strengthened compared to before World War II through measures such as the requirement to put tenant contracts in writing, restrictions on landowners' seizing of land, and the forced payment of fixed (low) rent. The Farm Land Law, enacted in 1952 with the aim of maintaining the results of land reform into the future, also strongly protected tenant farmers' cultivation rights by following the principles of the land reform.

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

Social changes after rapid economic growth

However, after the rapid economic growth of the 1960s, the situation changed. These changes can be summarized as follows:

(1) The non-agricultural labor market expanded, and a large amount of farm labor flowed out of agriculture. As a result, the problem of excess labor that had been persistently accumulating in the agricultural sector from before World War II to after the war was resolved. The situation in which farmers had no choice but to cling to small plots of land, as in the prewar period, gradually disappeared, and the freedom of agricultural workers to choose their occupation expanded and strengthened. In this environment, an increasing number of small-scale farmers (who were mostly also self-cultivating farmers) left farming, increasingly took on part-time work, further reduced the land area they operated, and some even gave up their land to become land-owning non-farmers. Before the war, small-scale farmers were generally tenant farmers (land renters), but now, conversely, there is a growing tendency for small-scale farmers to become land lenders (landlords).

(2) With the rapid development of the capitalist economy centered on industry, the development of a market economy for agricultural products, and the rapid progress of trade liberalization, some full-time farmers began to try to expand the scale of their operations by purchasing or renting more farmland. The government also needed to promote the expansion of the scale of operations through "structural policies" centered on agricultural structural improvement projects, increase the productivity of Japanese agriculture, and foster self-reliant farming families that could achieve income equilibrium with workers in other industries. To achieve this, it was necessary to promote the liquidity of farmland.

(3) However, land prices soared with the progress of industrialization and urbanization. Japan's land use planning could not prevent this from spreading to farmland, and farmland prices also soared. It became difficult to expand the scale of operations by purchasing farmland (own-farm land). Furthermore, as farmland prices soared, farmers increasingly wanted to hold on to their farmland as an asset in case of an emergency. Furthermore, because the Farmland Law strongly guaranteed tenant farmers' cultivation rights, farmland owners were reluctant to rent out their farmland, as it would be difficult to get it back once it had been rented out. Thus, while the need for farmland liquidation was called for in various quarters, a number of conditions prevented it from happening.

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

Developing laws to promote agricultural land liquidity

Under these circumstances, the Farmland Law was amended in 1970 and 1980 to include provisions that weakened the cultivation rights of tenant farmers and, conversely, strengthened the power of landowners, making it easier to rent out farmland, such as abolishing the maximum rent control, allowing payments in kind, and making it easier to request changes to rent, in order to promote the liquidity of farmland through leasing. However, the amendments did not go so far as to change the basic principles of farmland reform.

Starting with the 1975 amendment to the Law Concerning the Development of Agricultural Promotion Areas (commonly known as the Agricultural Promotion Law, enacted in 1969), a series of farmland-related laws were enacted, including the 1980 Law Concerning the Promotion of Agricultural Land Use (revised in 1993 to become the Law Concerning the Promotion of Strengthening the Agricultural Management Foundation) and the Law Concerning the Development of Related Laws for Strengthening the Agricultural Management Foundation in 1993 (Heisei 5). These laws were intended to encourage municipalities to carry out farmland use promotion projects, establish "use rights" (short-term leases of up to a few years) for farmland within a certain area, and promote the liquidity of farmland by making it an "exemption from the application of the Farmland Law." This expansion of leasing was a way to get around the Farmland Law, but the official involvement of municipalities had the advantage that both lenders and borrowers could lease land without having to worry about the issue of cultivation rights that would arise in bilateral cases.

[Kiyoshunshu 3]

Teru Shunshuzo, The Development of Japanese Agricultural Issues, vols. 1 and 2 (1970, 1984, University of Tokyo Press) ▽ Teru Shunshuzo (ed.), 100 Years of Japanese Agriculture (1996, Yuhikaku) ▽ Sekiya Shunsaku, Japan's Farmland System (1981, Agricultural Promotion Regional Research Association) ▽ Harada Sumitaka, Considering the Farmland System - Its History, Current Situation and Prospects (1997, National Agriculture Chamber) ▽ Masuda Yoshitaka, Modern Agricultural Policy Theory (1998, Agriculture and Forestry Statistics Association)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

一般的には、耕作者がその耕作地を耕作する際に有する権利をいう。したがって、一方では自作農がその自作地について有する耕作権から、他方では小作農がその賃借地について有する耕作権（小作権）までを含む。しかし現実には、耕作権という場合、小作権と同義語に用いられる場合が多い。

［暉峻衆三］

耕作権の確立

農地改革以前

農地改革以前の日本は、耕地の半分近くが小作地で、地主から多かれ少なかれ耕地を借りて耕作する零細農家が全農家の7割を占めており、農村における過剰人口の滞留のもとで地主の力が優勢であった。小作農は賃借地について地主から高額現物小作料を徴収され、耕作権もきわめて弱かった。小作契約も文書によらず口約束のことが多く、地主の一方的意思で小作契約の解除、土地取り上げが行われることが多かった。1920年代以降本格化する小作運動も、小作料減免とともに、「耕作権の確立」を地主に要求して激しく闘われた。政府も事態を放置しえず、20年代に「小作法」の制定によって小作権をある程度強化することを企図したが、地主・保守勢力の強い抵抗のもとでこの企ても30年代初頭に中止となった。しかし、日中戦争をはじめとする戦時体制への突入は、米をはじめ、食糧増産のために生産の担い手である小作農の耕作権の強化を必要とした。1938年（昭和13）に「農地調整法」が制定され、賃貸契約の登記がなくても小作契約に第三者への対抗権を認めたり、地主による小作契約解除を制限したりするなど、小作農の耕作権が強化された。

［暉峻衆三］

農地改革後

第二次世界大戦後の農地改革は、地主制を解体し、自作農を広範に創出することによって、農民の耕作権を著しく強化した。かつての小作農の多くは自作農となって、その耕地について十全の耕作権を手に入れた。

［暉峻衆三］

農地法の制定

また、農地改革は、在村地主については、全国平均1ヘクタールの地主保有地を認めたため、改革後もいくらかの小作地が残存することとなった。だが、この小作地についても、小作契約の文書化の義務づけや、地主による土地取上げの制限、小作料の定（低）額金納制の強制などによって、小作農の耕作権は第二次世界大戦前に比べて著しく強化された。農地改革の成果を将来にわたり維持することを目的に1952年に制定された「農地法」も農地改革の理念を踏襲する形で小作農の耕作権を強く保護した。

［暉峻衆三］

高度経済成長後の社会変化

しかし、1960年代の高度経済成長を経て、状況に変化が生じた。その変化をまとめると以下のとおりである。

(1)農外労働市場が拡大し、大量の農家（業）労働力が農外に流出した。そのため、第二次世界大戦前から戦後にかけて、農業部門に根強く滞留してきた過剰労働力の問題が解消していった。戦前のように農業者は零細な土地にしがみついてでも生きていくしかないという状況はしだいになくなり、農業（耕作）者の職業選択の自由の場が拡大・強化した。こうしたなかで、零細経営農家（彼らはおおむね自作農家でもある）を中心に、離農して兼業化を強めつつ経営地をさらに縮小し、あるものは経営地をなくして土地持ち非農家に転化しようとするものが増大した。戦前は零細農家は概して小作（土地の借り手）であったが、いまや逆にむしろ零細農家層が土地の貸し手にまわる（地主化）という傾向が強まった。

(2)工業を中心とする資本主義経済の急激な発展、農産物をめぐる市場経済の発展、貿易自由化の急進展のもとで、一部の専業的農家層のなかにはさらに農地を購入したり借り入れて経営規模を拡大しようとするものが現れた。政府としても農業構造改善事業を中心とした「構造政策」によって経営規模の拡大を推進し、日本農業の生産力の増進と、他産業従事者との所得均衡を実現しうるような自立経営農家の育成を図る必要があった。そのためにも農地流動化の促進が必要であった。

(3)ところが工業化と都市化の進展のもとで土地価格が急騰した。それが農地へ波及するのを日本の土地利用計画は阻止することができず、農地価格も急騰した。農地購入（自作地）による経営規模の拡大は困難になった。また、農地価格の高騰に伴って、農家がいざというときのために、農地を手放さないで資産として保有しておこうとする志向も強まった。さらに、農地法が小作者の耕作権を強く保証しているために、いったん農地を貸したらそれを取り戻すのが困難であるとして、農地所有者は貸したがらなかった。こうして、農地流動化の必要は各方面で叫ばれながら、それを阻む条件が重なった。

［暉峻衆三］

農地流動化へ向けた法整備

こうした状況のもとで、1970年、80年の農地法改正では、賃貸借による農地流動化を促進するために、小作料の最高額統制の廃止や物納の容認、小作料の変更請求の容易化など、小作側の耕作権を弱め、逆に地主側の権限を強めて農地を貸しやすくする規定などが盛り込まれた。だが、農地改革の基本理念を変更するような改正には至らなかった。

　また、1975年の「農業振興地域の整備に関する法律」（通称農振法、1969年制定）の改正を手始めに、農地法のバイパスの形で80年の「農用地利用増進法」（1993年に改正され「農業経営基盤強化促進法」となる）や93年（平成5）の「農業経営基盤の強化のための関係法律の整備に関する法律」など、一連の農地関連法が制定されていった。それらは、市町村が農地利用増進事業を行い、一定区域内の農地について「利用権」（数年以内の短期の賃貸借）を設定し、それについては「農地法の適用除外」として農地の流動化を図ろうとするものであった。農地法をすり抜ける形での賃貸借の拡大であるが、市町村が公的に関与することによって、貸し手も借り手も相対(あいたい)の場合の耕作権問題に煩わされずに貸借できるという利点がある。

［暉峻衆三］

『暉峻衆三著『日本農業問題の展開』上下（1970、84・東京大学出版会）』▽『暉峻衆三編『日本農業100年のあゆみ』（1996・有斐閣）』▽『関谷俊作著『日本の農地制度』（1981・農業振興地域調査会）』▽『原田純孝著『農地制度を考える――農地制度の沿革・現状と展望』（1997・全国農業会議所）』▽『増田萬孝著『現代農業政策論』（1998・農林統計協会）』