Agriculture, forestry, and fishing form the Primary sector of industry of the Japanese economy, together with the Japanese mining industry, but together they account for only 1.3% of gross national product. Only 15% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation, but the agricultural economy is highly subsidized and protected. With per unit area crop yields among the highest in the world, Japan maintains an overall agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than 56,000 km² (14 million acres) cultivated. Japan normally produces a slight surplus of rice but imports large quantities of wheat, sorghum, and soybeans, primarily from the United States. Japan is the largest market for U.S. agricultural exports. Potatoes are also grown, mostly in Hokkaidō, as well as where they were first introduced by Dutch traders, in Nagasaki in the late 18th century. The primary sector of industry generally involves the changing process of natural resources into primary products. ... The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article Japan#Economy. ... Mining was a rapidly declining industry in Japan in the 1980s. ... Tillage (American English), or cultivation (UK) is the agricultural preparation of the soil to receive seeds. ... Species T. aestivum T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 For the indie rock group see: Wheat (band). ... Species About 30 species, see text Sorghum is a genus of about 30 species of grasses raised for grain, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Eastern Africa, with one species native to Mexico. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ... Hokkaidō   (北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo and Yesso, is the second largest island and largest prefecture of Japan. ... Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi  , long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ...

Development

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing dominated the Japanese economy until the 1940s, but thereafter declined into relative unimportance (see Japanese agriculture before WWII). In the late 19th century (Meiji period), these sectors had accounted for more than 80 % of employment. Employment in agriculture declined in the prewar period, but the sector was still the largest employer (about 50 % of the work force) by the end of World War II. It further declined to 23.5 % in 1965, 11.9 % in 1977, and to 7.2 % in 1988. The importance of agriculture in the national economy later continued its rapid decline, with the share of net agricultural production in GNP finally reduced between 1975 and 1989 from 4.1 to 3 % In the late 1980s, 85.5 % of Japan's farmers were also engaged in occupations outside of farming, and most of these part-time farmers earned most of their income from nonfarming activities. A decidous beech forest in Slovenia. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water. ... The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article Japan#Economy. ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ... Japan had only 16% of its land (about 23,000 square miles) under agriculture. ... The Meiji period ) denotes the 45-year reign of Emperor Meiji, running from 8 September 1868 (in the Gregorian calendar, 23 October 1868) to 30 July 1912. ... The workforce is the labour pool in employment. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict...

Japan's economic boom that began in the 1950s left farmers far behind in both income and agricultural technology. Farmers were determined to close this income gap as quickly as possible. They were attracted to the government's food control policy under which high rice prices were guaranteed and farmers were encouraged to increase the output of any crops of their own choice. Farmers became mass producers of rice, even turning their own vegetable gardens into rice fields. Their output swelled to over 14 million metric tons in the late 1960s, a direct result of greater cultivated acreage and increased yield per unit area, owing to improved cultivation techniques. A tonne (also called metric ton) is a non-SI unit of mass, accepted for use with SI, defined as: 1 tonne = 103 kg (= 106 g). ...

Three types of farm households developed: those engaging exclusively in agriculture (14.5 % of the 4.2 million farm households in 1988, down from 21.5 % in 1965); those deriving more than half their income from the farm (14.2 % down from 36.7 % in 1965); and those mainly engaged in jobs other than farming (71.3 % up from 41.8 % in 1965). As more and more farm families turned to nonfarming activities, the farm population declined (down from 4.9 million in 1975 to 4.8 million in 1988). The rate of decrease slowed in the late 1970s and 1980s, but the average age of farmers rose to 51 years by 1980, twelve years older than the average industrial employee.

Land shortage

The most striking feature of Japanese agriculture is the shortage of farmland. The 49,000 km² under cultivation constituted just 13.2 % of the total land area in 1988. However, the land is intensively cultivated. Rice paddies occupy most of the countryside, whether on the alluvial plains, the terraced slopes, or the swampland and coastal bays. Nonrice farmland share the terraces and lower slopes and are planted with wheat and barley in the autumn and with sweet potatoes, vegetables, and dry rice in the summer. Intercropping is common: such crops are alternated with beans and peas. Species T. aestivum T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 For the indie rock group see: Wheat (band). ... Binomial name Hordeum vulgare L. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed crop, a member of the grass family Poaceae. ... Binomial name Ipomoea batatas Linnaeus The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a crop plant whose large, starchy, sweet tasting tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. ... Intercropping is the farming practice of growing two or more crops in the same field at the same time. ... Green beans Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed. ... Binomial name Pisum sativum L. A pea is the small, edible round green bean which grows in a pod on the leguminous vine Pisum sativum, or in some cases to the immature pods. ...

Japanese agriculture has been characterized as a "sick" sector because it must contend with a variety of constraints, such as the rapidly diminishing availability of arable land and falling agricultural incomes. Nevertheless, the Japanese manage to keep production at high levels. Agriculture is maintained through the use of technically advanced fertilizers and farm machinery and through a vast array of price supports. The nation's many agricultural cooperatives are in charge of purchasing grain according to prices indexed to the average wage rates in the nonagricultural sector. As a result, rice, wheat, and barley prices follow productivity trends in industry rather than in agriculture. This type of support system, enacted in 1960 along with the Basic Agricultural Law, resulted in large government rice stockpiles and high agricultural prices. Excessive rice production had an adverse effect on other crop production. Japan's self-sufficiency ratio for grains other than rice fell below 10 % in the 1970s but rose to 14 % in the mid- to late 1980s. The problem of surplus rice was further aggravated by extensive changes in the diets of many Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s. Even a major rice crop failure did not reduce the accumulated stocks by more than 25 % of the reserve. In 1990 Japan was % selfsufficient in agricultural products but only provided about 30 % of its cereals and fodder needs. spreading manure, an organic fertilizer Fertilizers (British English fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either via the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. ... Agricultural machinery is one of the most revolutionary and impactful applications of modern technology. ...

Livestock

Livestock raising is a minor activity. Demand for beef rose in the 1980s, and farmers often shifted from dairy farming to production of high-quality (and high-cost) beef, such as kobe beef. Throughout the 1980s, domestic beef production met over 60 % of demand. In 1991, as a result of heavy pressure from the United States, Japan ended import quotas on beef as well as citrus fruit. Milk cows are numerous in Hokkaido, where 25 % of farmers ran dairies, but milk cows are also raised in Iwate, in Tōhoku, and near Tōkyō and Kōbe. Beef cattle are mostly concentrated in western Honshū, and on Kyūshū. Hogs, the oldest domesticated animals raised for food, are found everywhere. Pork is the most popular meat. A cut of beef. ... Kobe beef for sukiyaki Kobe beef refers to beef from the black Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyu cattle, raised according to strict tradition in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. ... Species & major hybrids Species Citrus maxima - Pomelo Citrus medica - Citron Citrus reticulata - Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus x aurantifolia - Lime Citrus x aurantium - Bitter Orange Citrus x bergamia - Bergamot Citrus x hystrix - Kaffir Lime Citrus x ichangensis - Ichang Lemon Citrus x limon - Lemon Citrus x limonia - Rangpur Citrus x paradisi... COW is an acronym for a number of things: Can of worms The COW programming language, an esoteric programming language. ... Iwate Prefecture (岩手県; Iwate-ken) is located in the Tohoku region on Honshu island, Japan. ... Tohoku region, Japan The Tōhoku region (東北地方; Tōhoku-chihō) is a geographical area of Japan. ... The modern skyline of Tokyo is highly decentralized. ... Kobe ) is a city in Japan located on the island of Honshu. ... HonshÅ« (本州 Literally Main State) is the largest island of Japan, called the Mainland; it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait. ... KyÅ«shÅ« region of Japan and the current prefectures on KyÅ«shÅ« island KyÅ«shÅ« ), literally Nine Provinces, is the third largest island of Japan and most southerly and westerly of the four main islands. ... HOG or hog can mean:- A pig, originally a castrated male pig. ... Two halves of a pig being delivered Pork is the meat taken from pigs. ...

Most of the imported beef comes from Australia, since beef from the USA and Canada has been banned after the first cases of BSE in these countries. Currently, both countries are pushing Japan to lift these bans. Classic image of cattle with BSE. Frantic digging going nowhere. ...

Forestry

The nation's forest resources, although abundant, have not been well developed to sustain a large lumber industry. Of the 245,000 km² of forests, 198000 km² are classified as active forests. Most often forestry is a part-time activity for farmers or small companies. About a third of all forests are owned by the government. Production is highest in Hokkaido and in Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Fukushima, Gifu, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima prefectures. Nearly 33.5 million cubic meters of roundwood were produced in 1986, of which 98 % was destined for industrial uses. Aomori Prefecture (青森県 Aomoriken or frequently Aomori-ken) is located in the Tōhoku Region of Japan. ... Akita Prefecture ) is located in the Tōhoku Region of northern Japan. ... Fukushima Prefecture (福島県 Fukushima-ken) is located in the Tohoku region on Honshu island, Japan. ... Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県 Gifu-ken), is located in the Chubu region of central Japan. ... Miyazaki Prefecture (Japanese: 宮崎県; Miyazaki-ken) is located on Kyushu Island, Japan. ... Kagoshima Prefecture ) is located on Kyushu island, Japan. ...

Fisheries

Japan ranked second in the world behind China in tonnage of fish caught—11.9 million tons in 1989, down slightly from 11.1 million metric tons in 1980^{[citation needed]}. After the 1973 energy crisis, deep-sea fishing in Japan declined, with the annual catch in the 1980s averaging 2 million tons. Offshore fisheries accounted for an average of 50 % of the nation's total fish catches in the late 1980s although they experienced repeated ups and downs during that period. Coastal fisheries had smaller catches than northern sea fisheries in 1986 and 1987. As a whole, Japan's fish catches registered a slower growth in the late 1980s. By contrast, Japan's import of marine products increased greatly in the 1980s, and was nearly 2 million tons in 1989. At the height of the crisis in the United States, drivers of vehicles with odd numbered license plates were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers with even-numbers were limited to even-numbered days. ...

The Japanese fishing industry, both domestic and overseas, has long been centered on the Tsukiji fish market, in Tokyo, which is one of the world's largest wholesale markets for fresh, frozen, and processed seafood. Tsukiji as seen from Shiodome End of the fresh tuna auction at Tsukiji. ...

Japan also has greatly advanced the techniques of aquaculture or sea farming. In this system, artificial insemination and hatching techniques are used to breed fish and shellfish, which are then released into rivers or seas. These fish and shellfish are caught after they grow bigger. Salmon is raised this way. Workers harvest catfish from the Delta Pride Catfish farms in Mississippi Aquaculture is the cultivation of the natural produce of water (such as fish or shellfish, algae and other aquatic organisms). ... Cooked mussels Shellfish is a term used to describe shelled molluscs and crustaceans used as food. ... Illustration of a male Coho Salmon The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow to 1. ...

Japan has more than 2,000 fishing ports, including Nagasaki, in southwest Kyūshū; Otaru, Kushiro, and Abashiri in Hokkaidō. Major fishing ports on the Pacific coast of Honshū include, Hachinohe, Kesennuma, and Ishinomaki along the Sanriku coast, as well as Choshi, Yaezu, Shimizu, and Misaki to the east and south of Tokyo. Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi  , long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... KyÅ«shÅ« region of Japan and the current prefectures on KyÅ«shÅ« island KyÅ«shÅ« ), literally Nine Provinces, is the third largest island of Japan and most southerly and westerly of the four main islands. ... Otaru (小樽市; -shi) is a city and port located in Shiribeshi, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Kushiro (釧路市; -shi) is a city located in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Abashiri (網走市 Abashiri-shi) is a city located in Abashiri subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Hokkaidō   (北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo and Yesso, is the second largest island and largest prefecture of Japan. ... HonshÅ« (本州 Literally Main State) is the largest island of Japan, called the Mainland; it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait. ... Hachinohe (八戸市; -shi) is a city located in Aomori, Japan. ... Kesennuma (気仙沼市; -shi) is a city located in Miyagi, Japan. ... Ishinomaki (石巻市; -shi) is a city located in Miyagi, Japan. ... Chōshi (銚子市; -shi) is a city located in Chiba, Japan. ... Shimizu (清水, pure water) is the 20th most common Japanese surname and the name of several places in Japan. ...   , literally Eastern capital) is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, the home of the Japanese Imperial Family, and the de facto[1] capital of Japan. ...

Japan is also one of the world's few whaling nations. As a member of the International Whaling Commission, the government pledged that its fleets would restrict their catch to international quotas, but it attracted international opprobrium for its failure to sign an agreement placing a moratorium on catching sperm whales. Currently Japan conducts so-called "research whaling" for minke whales in the oceans surrounding Antarctica. The crew of the oceanographic research vessel Princesse Alice, of Albert Grimaldi (later Prince Albert I of Monaco) pose while flensing a catch. ... International Whaling Commission Logo The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW)[1] on December 2, 1946 to promote and maintain whale fishery stocks. ... Genera Kogia Physeter The sperm whale family or simply the sperm whales is the collective name given to three species of whale, the Sperm Whale, the Pygmy Sperm Whale and the Dwarf Sperm Whale. ...

See also

• Whaling in Japan
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan)
• Iki jime Japanese fish slaughtering method

Japan has a long history of whaling. ... The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (農林水産省; Nōrin-suisan-shō) is one of ministries of the Japanese government. ... Iki-jime literally means stab death in Japanese. ...

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan