Home > Statistics > Japan Statistical Yearbook > Chapter 7 Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries > Explanations
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This chapter covers agriculture, forestry, fisheries, index numbers of agriculture, forestry and fishery production, and supply and demand of food.
The section of agriculture contains statistics on agricultural establishments, persons engaged, agricultural land, farm products, sericulture, livestock, agricultural economy, etc. Main sources of data are "Census of Agriculture and Forestry", "Survey of Movement in Agricultural Structure", "Crop Survey", "Statistics on Production and Shipment of Vegetables", "Statistics on Production and Shipment of Fruits and Nuts", "Statistical Survey on Livestock", "Statistical Survey on Meat Marketing", "Statistical Survey on Farm Management and Economy", and "Statistical Survey on Prices in Agriculture", all of which are taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The section of forestry contains statistics on forestry establishments, persons engaged, forest resources, forest products and forestry household economy, etc. Data are mostly derived from "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry", "Survey on the Marketing of Lumber" and "Survey on Forestry Household Economy" by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The section of fisheries contains statistics on fishery establishments, persons engaged, fishing boats, fishery products, fishery economy, etc. Data are mainly obtained from "Fishery Census", "Annual Basic Survey of Fisheries", "Survey on Marine Production", "Survey on Inland Water Fishery and Aquaculture Production", "Survey of Fishery Economy" and "Survey of Fishery Products Marketing" by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The section of indices of agricultural, forestry and fishery production and the supply and demand of food contains indices of production by industrial groups of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and statistics on the supply and demand of food. Data are mainly drawn from "Index Numbers of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Production" and "Food Balance Sheet" compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
As regards the items shown in the following, see the respective sections: for area by land category, "1 Land and Climate" and "18 Housing and Estate"; for earnings of workers engaged in forestry by occupation, "16 Labour and Wages"; for agricultural insurance, government-managed forest insurance and fishing boat insurance, "14 Finance and Insurance"; for index numbers of commodity prices in agriculture, "17 Prices"; for index of consumption expenditure level, "19 Family Income and Expenditure"; and for damage to paddy fields and paddy harvests caused by natural disasters, "26 Environment, Disasters and Accidents".
The first post-war census on agriculture and forestry was conducted in 1950 according to the "World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 1950" proposed internationally by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Since then, "World Census of Agriculture" (from 1960, "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry" incorporating forestry) has been conducted based every 10 years according to the "World Programme for the Census of Agriculture". In the inter-census years, or the year ending with 5, the "Census of Agriculture" (from 2005, Census of Agriculture and Forestry) has been conducted under Japan’s original scheme. The "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry" conducted in 2010 is the 13th in the series of the census of agriculture after the World War II.
The "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry 2010" was conducted as of February 1 with a purpose to prepare basic materials for statistical surveys on agriculture and forestry and to clarify, along with the spirit of "World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 2010" ,the status of Japan's agriculture and forestry in comparison with that of countries of the world by grasping the structure of agricultural and forestry production and employment and the conditions of agricultural and forestry area.
The "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry 2010" is composed of the survey on agricultural and forestry management entities and the survey on agricultural and forestry area (consisting of the survey of municipalities and the survey of agricultural settlements). The survey on agricultural and forestry management entities covers those entities, namely, individuals, organizations and juridical persons, producing agricultural or forestry products or entrusted to do agricultural or forestry work, using farming area or livestock of the specified size or more, and was conducted by the self-enumeration method through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, local statistical organizations, supervisors and enumerators. The survey on agricultural and forestry area covers all the municipalities and agricultural settlements (excluding totally urbanized settlements). The survey of municipalities was conducted by the mail survey method (or via the Internet) through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, local statistical organizations, and the survey of agricultural settlements was conducted by the self-enumeration method with the aid of persons knowledgeable about the settlements (or by the interview method) through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, local statistical organizations and enumerators.
This survey is a sample survey covering all the agricultural management entities meeting the conditions stated below and is conducted to clarify the status and change of the basic agricultural structure, such as the number of agricultural management entities, agricultural labour force, etc. and to provide materials for planning and implementation of agricultural policies for inter-census years. The agricultural management entities are divided into "family management entities" and "organizational management entities", and the survey was conducted as of February 1 by the self-enumeration method through enumerators for family management entities, and by the mail survey method through the local statistical organizations of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for organizational management entities.
Those who produce agricultural products or entrusted to do agricultural, using farming area or livestock as specified below.
(a) Agriculture operating on cultivated land of 30 ares or more
(b) Agriculture of the size (in planted land area, growing land area, size of livestock, etc.) equal to or exceeding any of the following. (1) 15 ares of open-air planted land for vegetables, (2) 350 square metres of facility for growing vegetables, (3) 10 ares of growing land for fruit trees, (4) 10 ares of open-air growing land for flowers, (5) 250 square metres of facility for growing flowers, (6) One cow for milking, (7) one beef cattle, (8) one pig, (9) 150 hens for egg, (10) broiler chickens, or (11) agricultural work producing agricultural products of 500 thousand yen or more.
(c) Entrusted agricultural work
Agricultural management entities operated manly by household members, one of them having the decision right on management. A legal person composed of one household is included.
Agricultural management entities other than family agricultural management entities. Judicial persons (in case of the judicial person manages agricultural undertakings) or groups other than judicial persons.
Farm households operating cultivated land of 30 ares or more or those with annual sales of farm products amounting to 500,000 yen or more.
Farm households, where none of them was employed in non-farming jobs for 30 days or more or engaged in non-farming family business gaining 150 thousand yen during one year preceding the survey date.
Farm households, where one or more members are engaged in non-farming jobs. In addition, the"mainly farming" category of the part-time farm households refers to the households earning the income mainly from farming; and the "mainly other jobs", to the households earning income mainly from non-farming jobs.
Household members 15 years of age and older who were engaged in any work of family-operated farming, for one day or more during the one year preceding the survey date.
Population engaged in farming Persons engaged mainly in farming, i.e., those engaged exclusively in farming during one year preceding the survey date, and those engaged in multiple jobs but spent more days in farming than in non-farming jobs.
Core persons mainly engaged in farming Persons engaged mostly in farming, during one year preceding the survey date.
The survey, taken every year by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, was initiated in 1947. It aims at clarifying the actual situation of cultivated land and crop production. The survey is comprised of the Area Survey, the Yield Survey and the Survey of Crop Damage.
The Area Survey is composed of the survey of cultivated area and the survey of planted area. The survey of planted are covers paddy rice, sugar cane, sugar beet, etc.
The Yield Survey consists of the survey on growing conditions (for paddy rice), the survey on forecast of crop production (for paddy rice) and the survey of crop production (for rice, wheat and barley, soybean, sweet potato, forage crop, crops for sugar, tea, fruits, vegetables and flower).
As for the production of tea as well as the planted area and production of flowering plants, the Survey of Tea Production and the Survey on Production and Shipment of Flowers are conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Statistics on leaf tobacco are obtained from the survey materials of the Japan Tobacco Inc. (formerly the Japan Tobacco Public Corporation till March 1985) .
Cultivated land refers to the land for cultivation of farm crops, including attached dikes. Among the cultivated land, the proper field refers to the land used directly for the cultivation of farm crops, and the attached dike refers to a part of land mainly needed for the maintenance of cultivated land.
Planted area refers to the area of cultivated land which is actually used for the cultivation of crops in the year of survey.
The survey (formerly Basic and Forecast Survey on Livestock until 2003) has been conducted annually by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries since 1970 in order to clarify the situation of livestock industries by presenting statistics on major livestock and raisers, and to provide basic data for the policy on livestock.
The survey is composed of "Survey on Dairy Cow", "Survey on Beef Cattle", "Survey on Pig", "Survey on Laying Hen" and " Survey on Chicken Hatching". The survey is conducted on dairy cow raisers (excluding those raising males only), beef cattle raisers, pig raisers, laying hen raisers (excluding those raising less than 1,000 hens), and chicken hatcheries (those with the hatching capacity of 200 thousand eggs or more, and those with less capacity but exporting hatched chicken to other prefectures or abroad). For the Survey on Dairy Cow, Survey on Beef Cattle, Survey on Pig, and the Survey on Laying Hen, raisers are divided into the general class (for profit) and the special class (not for profit), and the general class is covered by a sample survey and the special class is covered by a complete survey. The Survey on Chicken Hatching is conducted as a sampling survey.
The survey is conducted by enumerator's interview or by mail, every month for the Survey on Chicken Hatching, and once a year (as of February 1) for the other surveys.
As for the production and distribution of livestock products, the Survey on Production of Milk and Milk Products (see "8 Mining and Manufacturing") as well as the Survey of Meat Marketing, the Survey of Hen Eggs Marketing and the Survey of Poultry Marketing, are carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The Survey on Production of Milk and Milk Products was initiated in fiscal 1950, and other surveys started in fiscal 1964 or 1965 respectively as a part of the Survey of Agricultural Products Marketing. Items on production and shipment are surveyed monthly by enumerator's interviews.
Survey on Farm Management and Economy has been conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries since 1994 with the purpose to monitor the management and economy of farm households and other entities as well as the production cost of farm products and to contribute to agricultural policy making. This survey is a newly designated statistical survey, consolidating the surveys under different systems, such as the Survey of Farm Household Economy, the Survey on Production Cost of Rice, both of which had been conducted since 1949, surveys on production cost of other crops and livestock than rice and finally, the Survey on Management of Farm Organizations was absorbed in 2004. Statistics on farm management and economy by type of farming, statistics on farm management and economy by crop, and statistics on production cost of crops and livestock are compiled from this Survey. In addition, statistics on farm management and economy by type of management (of individual ownership) are derived from the statistics on farm management and economy by type of farming.
The survey is a sample survey which covers commercial farm households with an operating cultivated land of 0.3 hectare or more, or with a yearly sales of 500 thousand yen or more. The survey is conducted by the method
of self-entry and enumerator's interview through Statistics Department, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the local statistical offices of the ministry.
Based on the statistics on farm management and economy by type of farming (of individual ownership) which cover commercial farm households, receipts and disbursements are compiled by 13 types of farming, such as paddy farming, field farming, outdoor vegetable farming, etc. In addition, the average receipts and disbursements by main or subsidiary farming of all the commercial farm households including the other type of farming.
Covering individually-managed farm households with 0.1 hectare of planted area or more (300 square metres or more for facility farming of vegetable or flower), sales and costs by each crop of vegetable, fruits and flower are compiled with the aim to stabilize production of shipments of these crops.
It is composed of Statistics of Production Costs of Crops, and Statistics of Production Costs of Livestock. Statistics of Production Costs of Crops are compiled to grasp the production cost of such crops as rice, wheat and barley and industrial crops at commercial farm households with the aim to provide necessary information for the policy for production and household economy.
Statistics of Production Costs of Livestock are compiled to grasp the cost of rearing cattle, fattening cattle and fattening at raising households with the aim to provide necessary information for the livestock policy such as stabilizing the price of live stock and for improving the economy of raising households.
The Statistical Survey on Prices in Agriculture, which is conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, aims at surveying price of agricultural products, production materials and wages in order to measure price movements in agricultural inputs and outputs and construct an agricultural price index for the nation and the regions by putting all survey results together. This survey had been conducted as Survey of Agricultural and Forestry Prices since 1948 but changed to Statistical Survey on Prices in Agriculture in 2001.
The survey is taken on agricultural products against major shipping organizations in the shi (cities), machi (towns) and mura (villages) selected for the survey, and on agricultural production materials and living materials against major retail stores. The survey was carried out by the local office staff members under the supervision of the local statistical system.
Forestry establishments refer to the establishments engaged in forestry activities whose area of forest (sanrin) operated is 1 hectare or more. Forest (sanrin) operated is the forest (sanrin) owned from which the forest (sanrin) lent to others or placed under profit sharing contracts are subtracted, and the forest (sanrin) rented from others or placed under profit sharing contracts on other's land are added. In case of the co-owned forest (sanrin) any allotted parcel of which is to be rotated among common users are also added to the above.
Forestry households refer to forestry establishments which are identical to households. In case that the households are farm households, they are called forestry households with farming, and in case that the households are not farm households, they are called forestry households without farming.
Forest (sanrin) area refers to the area of land for growing forests to obtain lumber, firewood, and charcoal, bamboo and other forest products en masse.
Forest area refers to the area of land where trees and bamboos are growing en masse or to the land served for foresting trees and bamboos en masse, and equal to the total area of forest (sanrin) and to-be-forested land.
Forests operated area refer to the forest area which "forestry households" are able to keep without other's help and are obtained from the areas of owned forests by excluding the areas that are lent to others, and by adding the areas rented from other's.
Current forest area is obtained from the forest area at the time of formulating the regional forest plan and the regional management plan, by adding to or subtracting changes in area occurred thereafter until the survey date, and further adding to it the forest area not included in the above plans.
This survey was instituted in 1953 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in order to ascertain the level and change of prices of lumber and the market structure of lumber and to provide materials for the policies, such as rationalization measures for lumber industry and improvement of the marketing structure. The survey is comprised of the Survey of Lumber Prices (monthly) and the Survey on Marketing Structure for Lumber (every 5 years).
The Survey of Lumber Prices is sample survey by systematic random sampling and conducted by the mail survey method or via the Internet, and the Survey on Marketing Structure for Lumber is a sample survey by random sampling and is conducted by the enumerator survey.
The Survey of Sawing covering sawmills is conducted as the basic survey (annual), the monthly survey on sawing and the monthly survey of boards and plywood. And the results of them are compiled, together with those of the Survey on the Marketing of Lumber, into the "Report of Supply and Demand of Timber".
The survey is conducted annually by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in order to clarify the actual economic situation of forestry households (including mushroom raisers) and to provide basic data for the policy on forestry.
The survey covers forestry households with forest of 50 or more hectares and forestry households with forest of 20 or more but less than 50 hectares who are engaged in forestry work for 30 or more days during last year, and mushroom raisers whose sales of mushroom is 500 thousand yen or more. The sample households are selected by systematic random sampling based on the results of the Census of Agriculture and Forestry. The survey is conducted by entering in a daily record book by each household, as well as by interview.
The principal purpose of this census is to find out the basic structure of fishery production and the structure of employment in fisheries, as well as the background of fishery production. The survey was first taken in 1949 as a part of the Survey of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Since the second survey in 1953, it has been conducted every five years as the Fishery Census. In 1958, however, the census was replaced by the Temporary Survey on Coastal Fishery, and then the third census was taken in 1963. Since then, the fishery census had been conducted regularly until the latest (12th) census in 2008.
The 12th census, covering all the fishery operating units and fishery management organizations, etc. throughout Japan, was conducted in three surveys, namely, survey on marine fisheries, survey on inland water fisheries, and survey on distribution and processing. The survey of fishery operating units on marine fisheries was conducted by the self-enumeration method through the channel of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, prefectures, municipalities, and enumerators. The survey of fishery management organizations on marine fisheries, survey on inland water fisheries, and survey on distribution and processing were conducted by the self-enumeration method (on-line reporting was admitted for the survey on distribution and processing) through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, statistics and information centres, and enumerators. The reference date of the 2008 Census was November 1.
Fishery operating units refer to households and establishments engaged in catching or gathering marine animals and plants, or in aquaculture, during the one year preceding the survey date, for the purpose of marketing for profits or to make a living. However, individual fishery operating units who worked less the 30 days on marine water for fishery are excluded.
Individual operating units Fishery operating units managed and operated by individuals.
Group operating units Fishery operating units other than individual operating units. They are classified in companies, fishery cooperatives, associations for fishery production, joint management, and others.
This survey has been conducted in intercensual years between the Fishery Censuses since 1952 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, to ascertain changes in the structure of production. It consists of the Survey of Fishery Establishments and the Survey on Trends of Fishery Work Force. (It was called the Survey on Employment of Fishery Household Members from 1961 through 1992).
The survey areas are coastal shi (cities), machi (towns) and mura (villages). The Survey of Fishery Establishments covers, as of January 1, all fishery operating units engaged in marine water fisheries during one year preceding the survey date, while the Survey on Trends of Fishery Work Force are taken, as of November 1, by selecting sample enumeration districts from the basic enumeration districts of the Fishery Census. The sampled fishery households are interviewed by the enumerators through the regional statistical offices.
Fishery households include both individual operating units and fishery worker's households. Individual operating units refer to the households engaged in marine water fisheries for 30 days or more during one year preceding the survey date. Fishery worker's households refer to those with persons who were employed by fishery operating units operated by others and were engaged in marine fisheries for 30 days or more during a year preceding the survey date.
Fishery workers refer to persons 15 years old and over belonging to fishery households who were engaged in sea work for 30 days or more during the one year preceding the survey date.
This survey was instituted, as an annual survey, in 1951 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the name of Survey on Marine Fishes Production for the purpose of clarifying the actual conditions of marine fishery and aquaculture production. In 1973, the name of the survey was changed to the present one. The survey is composed of the Survey on Fishery Operation, Survey on Marine Fishes Production and the Survey on Marine Aquaculture Production.
The survey covers nationwide marine fishery establishments and fish landing agencies, and is conducted by the method of self-entry or enumerator's interview through the regional statistical offices.
The survey, with an aim to clarify the actual situation of inland water fishery and aquaculture production, had been conducted annually since 1954 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the name of Survey on Catches of Inland Water Fishes. In 1973, the name of the survey was changed to the present one. The survey consists of the Survey on Inland Water Fishery Production, Survey on Inland Water Aquaculture Production and the Survey on Fishery Production in Three Major Lakea.
The survey is being conducted against the inland water fishery cooperatives which control the rivers, lakes and marshes, with 100 tons or more of annual catches, where fishery rights are set up and those rivers, lakes and marshes, with less than 100 tons of catches, for which annual survey is needed for administrative purposes, and also against other fishery managements which conduct inland water fisheries in the rivers, lakes and marshes as mentioned above.
The survey is conducted against all inland water culture managements, which raise trout, sweet fishes, common carps and eels.
The survey is conducted on coastal fish market operators, fishery and aquaculture enterprises / households at the three major lakes, namely, Biwako, Kasumigaura and Kitaura.
The survey has been conducted since 1956 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to obtain information on price levels and the demand-supply structure of fishery products the aim to provide policy information for formulating demand-supply plans, stabilizing prices of fishery products and for improving their marketing. It consists of the Survey of Fishery Products Marketing at Landing Places, the Survey of Fishery Products Marketing in Consuming Areas, the Survey of Processed Fishery Products and the Survey of Frozen Fishery Products Marketing. The Survey of Fishery Products Marketing in Landing Places is conducted monthly and annually depending on the survey items, at the major fishery districts selected from 2,177 fishery districts established for the 2003 Fishery Census. Each selected district is assumed as a fishing port. The Survey of Processed Fishery Products is conducted annually at all the enterprises which have processing factories or facilities for marine products with full time employees. The Survey of Frozen Fishery Products Marketing is conducted monthly at refrigerated or cold storage factories located in the major cities in the consuming area or in the municipalities in the landing places. Both the mail survey method and the enumerators’ survey method are used for those surveys.
The indices, which are the indicators showing the production in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, have been compiled annually by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. They are calculated for calendar years, adopting 2000 as base year, using a Laspeyres-type formula. For the Index of Agricultural Production , indices for fiscal years are also calculated with the fiscal 2000 as the base.
The number of index items is 162 for agriculture, 19 for forestry and 126 (121 for 1995, 130 for 2000) for fisheries. All of them are selected mainly from the items whose quantities of production are surveyed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Weights of index items are calculated by multiplying quantity of production of each item (excluding intermediate products) by delivery price at farm household or forestry household or wholesale price at landing place of fishery products.
Data are derived from the "Food Balance Sheet" compiled every fiscal year by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in conformity with the manual for making the food balance sheet prepared by the FAO. The balance sheet tabulates the total amount of food supplied to Japan covering all stages from production to final consumption and the quantity and caloric value of the edible part per capita per day. It is utilized as indicators of the trend in the supply and demand of food, the level and composition of caloric value and changes in the structure of food consumption, etc.
