Main contents start here
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 index numbers of agriculture, forestry and fishery production and the supply and demand of food contains indexes 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 Agriculture, 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 indexes of living 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 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) urged its member countries to produce internationally comparable statistics on agriculture and proposed the World Census of Agriculture Programme in 1950. Japan participated in the first "World Census of Agriculture" in 1950, and has been conducting the "World Census of Agriculture" (beginning 1960, "World Census of Agriculture and Forestry") every 10 years since then. In the inter-census years, or the year ending with 5, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has conducted the "Census of Agriculture" under Japan's original scheme.
In 2005, the Census of Forestry, which had been conducted every ten years, was consolidated and the census was conducted as the "Census of Agriculture and Forestry. The Census is composed of the survey on agricultural and forestry management entities (consolidating three surveys on agricultural management entities (farmer's household, entity other than farmer's household, agricultural service entity) and three surveys on forestry management entities (forestry household, entity other than forestry household, forestry services entity)), the survey on agricultural and forestry area and the survey on 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 the survey on agricultural and forestry area covers all the municipalities and agricultural settlements except for those in the urbanized area. And the survey on agricultural settlements is conducted at the settlements with community function sampled from the settlements covered by the survey on agricultural and forestry area The survey on agricultural and forestry management entities was conducted by the self-enumeration method through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, prefectures, municipalities, supervisors and enumerators. The survey on agricultural and forestry area was conducted by the interview method through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Regional Agricultural Bureaus and statistics and information centres. The reference date for both surveys is in February 1 (for Okinawa Prefecture, December 1 of the previous year). The survey on agricultural settlements was conducted by the interview method through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Regional Agricultural Bureaus and statistics and information centres, with the reference date of November 1.
This survey is carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in order to ascertain conditions related to the structure of agricultural production and of employment among farm households. The items of inquiry related to the structure of agricultural production have succeeded those that had been used in the Annual Sample Survey of Agriculture, and the items related to the structure of employment have succeeded those that had been used in the Survey on Employment of Farm Household Members. Since the purpose of this survey is to fill in the gaps between the successive Censuses of Agriculture and Forestry, the survey is conducted on a sampling basis as of February 1 of every year by enumerators' interviews, and confined to commercial farm households and information.
Agricultural establishments refer to those operating on cultivated land of 10 ares or more and also to some of the smaller ones whose total annual sales of farm products before the survey amounted to 150,000 yen or more.
Farm households refer to a type of agricultural establishments that take a form of households. Farm households covered by the survey have been divided into commercial farm households and non-commercial farm households since the 1990 World Census of Agriculture and Forestry. At the same time, the definitions of agricultural income and agricultural labour force, which is used for the classification of farm households, were enlarged, so that the concept of "farming" was changed from "family-operated farming" to, "family-operated and contract farming." The exceptional farm households are defined as those operating cultivated land of less than 10 ares but with total sales of farm products during a year prior to the survey date amounting to 150,000 yen or more (10,000 yen or more for 1950; 20,000 yen or more for 1955 and 1960; 30,000 yen or more for 1965; 50,000 yen or more for 1970; 70,000 yen or more for 1975 and 1980; 100,000 yen or more for 1985).
Commercial farm households They refer to 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.
Non-commercial farm households They refer to farm households operating cultivated land of less than 30 ares and those with annual sales of farm products amounting to less than 500,000 yen.
Full-time farm households They refer to the farm households, where all the active members are exclusively engaged in farming.
Part-time farm households They refer to the farm households, where one or more members are engaged in non-farming jobs. In addition, the "mainly farming" category of the 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.
Farm households by type of farming The singular type farm households are those earning 80 percent or more income from the principal farm product, while the semi-multiple farm households are those earning more than 60 percent but less than 80 percent, and the multiple farm households more than 60 percent, of their income from the principal farm product.
They refer to household members 15 years of age and older who have been engaged in any farming work, for one day or more during the one year preceding the survey date.
Population engaged in farming Referring to persons engaged mainly in farming, i.e., those engaged exclusively in farming, and those engaged in multiple jobs but spent more days in farming than in non-farming jobs.
Core persons mainly engaged in farming They are the population engaged in farming, as their occupation.
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. As to the Survey of Crop Damage, see "26 Environment, Disasters and Accidents."
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, sweet potato and crops for sugar) 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 supply and demand of lumber and trend in lumber-related industries as well as price level of lumber and its movement.
The survey is comprised of the Survey on the Production Structure of Lumber, a complete count made annually by enumerators; the Current Production Survey of Lumber Products and the Survey of Lumber Prices, both of which are systematic random sampling surveys conducted monthly by mail; and the Survey on Marketing Structure for Lumber, a random sampling survey taken periodically by enumerator's survey method.
The supply and demand and the current production of sawmills are surveyed respectively as the basic survey as well as the sample survey in the Survey of Sawing. The results 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. The latest (11th) census was carried out in 2003.
The 11th census covered fishery operating units and fishery worker's households, and was carried out as of November 1 by the enumerator's interview method (partly by self-entry)through the channels of: the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; prefectures; shi (cities), machi (towns) and mura (villages); and enumerators.
Fishery operating units refer to those engaged in fisheries, during the one year preceding the survey date, for the purpose of marketing for profits or to make a living. They are classified into the fishery operating units in marine water, which are engaged in catching or breeding fish and aquatic animals and plants in marine water the fishery operating units in lakes and marshes designated by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the fishery operating units engaged in culture in inland water. However, the fishery operating units in marine water exclude those under individual management that are engaged in fishery work less than 30 days.
Individual operating units refer to the fishery operating units under the management of individuals.
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 Lakes.
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 indexes, 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 Indexes of Production in Agriculture, indexes 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.
