In Japan, as in the United States, there has been a strong movement from the country to the city as a natural result of the large increase in manufactures and commerce, and the small amount of land per each farmer’s household.  In 1903 only .23 per cent of the population of Japan were living in villages of less than 500, while 79.06 per cent were in towns and villages of less than 10,000 people, 20.7 per cent living in those larger.  But in 1894 84.36 per cent of the population were living in towns and villages of less than 10,000, and only 15.64 per cent were in cities, towns and villages of over 10,000 people; and while during these ten years the rural population had increased at the rate of 640 per 10,000, in cities the increase had been 6,174 per 10,000.

Japan has been and still is essentially an agricultural nation and in 1906 there were 3,872,105 farmers’ households, whose chief work was farming, and 1,581,204 others whose subsidiary work was farming, or 60.2 per cent of the entire number of households.  A like ratio holds in Formosa.  Wealthy land owners who do not till their own fields are not included.

Of the farmers in Japan some 33.34 per cent own and work their land.  Those having smaller holdings, who rent additional land, make up 46.03 per cent of the total farmers; while 20.63 per cent are tenants who work 44.1 per cent of the land.  In 1892 only one per cent of the land holders owned more than twenty-five acres each; those holding between twenty-five acres and five acres made up 11.7 per cent; while 87.3 per cent held less than five acres each.  A man owning seventy-five acres of land in Japan is counted among the “great landholders”.  It is never true, however, except in the Hokkaido, which is a new country agriculturally, that such holdings lie in one body.

Statistics published in “Agriculture in Japan”, by the Agricultural Bureau, Department of Agriculture and Commerce, permit the following statements of rent, crop returns, taxes and expenses, to be made.  The wealthy land owners who rent their lands receive returns like these: 

For paddy field,  For upland field,
per acre.         per acre. 
Rent              $27.98            $13.53
Taxes               7.34              1.98
Expenses            1.72              2.48
Total expenses     $9.06             $4.46
Net profit         18.92              9.07

It is stated, in connection with these statistics, that the rate of profit for land capital is 5.6 per cent for the paddy field, and 5.7 per cent for the upland field.  This makes the valuation of the land about $338 and $159 per acre, respectively.  A land holder who owns and rents ten acres of paddy field and ten acres of upland field would, at these rates, realize a net annual income of $279.90.

Peasant farmers who own and work their lands receive per acre an income as follows: