Factors Influencing Farmland Prices in Postwar Japan--An Approach Using Bits of Information Measure (BIM)

摘要

Recalling the history of economic development, Japan had problems of "land use competition between agriculture and industry" and "agricultural land for non-agricultural uses." The Japanese government adopted a policy based on "the New Urban Planning Law" in 1968 to partly satisfy land demand for urban housing, transportation, industry, and other non-agricultural uses. However, this policy converted a lot of farmland into non-farm uses and raised the farmland price, which resulted in developments adverse to the rural economy. Although there were several revisions in "the Agricultural Land Law," ownership transfer and use conversion still face significant restrictions. Recently, under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), trade liberalization has become an inevitable trend. In order to survive, consolidation of farmland usage to lower production costs is an important strategy for competing with foreign agricultural products. However, high price of farmland is an obstacle to this consolidation.