Page 193 - Changing Living Spaces

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Wet-Rice Agriculture and Economic Growth
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in Pre-Industrial Japan

Masanori Takashima
Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
© 2024 Masanori Takashima
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-399-9.191-216

Staple Grain and Non-Staple Grain in the
Japanese Economic Historical Context
Based on agricultural production and cultivated land data prior to mod-
ern Japan, this chapter analyses the impact of natural environment-in-
duced differences in agricultural production conditions on regional eco-
nomic growth and its trajectory. To this end, the chapter provides an
overview of the agricultural production sector in Japan from pre-mod-
ern to early modern times. Agricultural production, especially rice cul-
tivation, was the mainstay of pre-modern economic society. During this
period, rice in East Asia was distinguished from other grains not only by
being the staple grain but also by occupying a central position in the tax
system as tribute. In the political history of Japan – at least during this
period – the greatest concern of a governing organisation was how to con-
trol rice production and maintain its stable increase as tribute.
In this context, it should be noted that agricultural production, regard-
less of the crop, is influenced by the characteristics of the region in which
it is produced. In pre-modern society, it was primarily soil and climat-
ic conditions that determined the cultivation of crops. Although agricul-
tural technology was developed to some degree, it could not fully control
the effects of natural conditions. Given the uncertainty of natural condi-
tions, year-to-year variations in temperature and precipitation would af-
fect crops and sometimes create secondary obstacles, such as disasters,
for the farmer, even if the crops were adapted to natural conditions.

Murayama, S., Ž. Lazarević, and A. Panjek, eds. 2024. Changing Living
Spaces: Subsistence and Sustenance in Eurasian Economies from Early Modern
Times to the Present. Koper: University of Primorska Press.

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