Japanese vs. American Farmer

A Japanese farmer would undoubtedly look upon his American counterpart with envy, or perhaps even full on jealousy. Japan has a population of roughly 125 million people and only 11.68 million acres of agricultural land. That population to available land ratio works out to roughly 10 people per acre, compounding this issue is the fact that the average farm size in Japan is only 3.75 acres, a plot of land that is too small to be used to feed a large number of people. Another limiting factor facing Japan is the soil is not suitable to grow a wide variety of crops. The most commonly grown crop is rice, which, with a static demand and heavy government support to be grown, has yielded little return for the farmers that grow it.

Due to its limitations, Japan is the world’s largest net importer of agricultural products. It spends roughly 30 billion dollars a year on importing food stuffs. Japan’s number one supplier of these products is the United States. The United States has a population of roughly 311.5 million people, and 382 million acres of agricultural land. With this favorable population to land ratio, and the average American farm size being 500 acres, an American farmer is able to produce more food than is needed for personal consumption and can sell the rest for profit.

Due to a normal rotation of crops which keeps the soil fertile, American farmers also have the ability to shift focus as the demand for certain crops increases or decreases. The land they work does not have a pre-disposition to nurture only one type of plant.

As an outsider looking in, a Japanese farmer would more than likely happily trade places with his American counterpart. The ability to grow excess food for profit, properly rotate crops for maximum soil output, and have the freedom to change what is being grown based on market demand make being an American farmer highly desirable to a Japanese one.

United States Department of Agriculture...