Column Finance and the Social Security System 2021.07.07
【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.312：The number of agricultural workers in Japan is declining and their average age is increasing
In this column series, Yukihiro Matsuyama, Research Director at CIGS introduces the latest information about aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan with data of international comparison
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) published the White Paper on Agriculture in May 2021. A feature that differentiates this from a conventional white paper is that 44 of the 460 pages provided a detailed analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food-related industries and people's diets. As in many other countries, the food service industry has suffered from a sharp decline in customers, and the prices of high-end foodstuffs have also fallen sharply as a result. This has a negative impact on fishermen and agricultural producers. As shown in Figure 1, the amount of money used to purchase food (per person) on the Internet has increased significantly during this period.
The peak of Japan's total agricultural output was JPY 11.7 trillion (USD 106 billion) in 1984, which decreased to JPY 8.9 trillion (USD 81 billion) in 2019. By 2019, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate was 38% on an energy supply basis and 66% on a production value basis. The government has set the goal of raising these figures to 45% and 75%, respectively, by 2030. One of the factors that greatly influences the achievement of this goal is securing enough farmers.
As shown in Figure 2, the number of key farmers decreased from 2,054,000 in 2010 to 1,363,000 in 2020, and the remaining farmers are aging. A key farmer is defined as a household member over the age of 15, who is usually engaged in self-employed farming. Their average age increased from 66.2 in 2010 to 67.8 in 2020. At the same time, the number of new farmers who started to engage in agriculture has been flat since 2010 (Figure 3).
Figure 1 Monthly amount spent on food purchases (per person) via the Internet
Source： Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Figure 2 Number of key farmers by age group
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Figure 3 Number of new farmers by age group
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.