Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Research, Analysis and Network Development to
Sustain Businesses of Rural Women Entrepreneurs:
from North Kyushu to Asia
Kayo OKABE
Adjunct Lecture, Hosei University

andMayumi DAN
Adjunct Lecture, Keisen University

Abstract
Through four interviews in north Kyushu area, we obtained basic data toinvestigate what assistance is required for women entrepreneurs in agriculture.
We then implemented a questionnaire survey on a nationwide basis to 423
entrepreneurs and used the data for statistical analysis. From empiricalanalysis consisting of principal component analysis, cluster analysis andcorrelation analysis, we concluded that rural women entrepreneurs withhold
the features of social entrepreneurs.
Then we classified the support required and investigated the actual
means of obtaining useful information. By programming with Google Maps
JavaScript API V3, we developed a homepage to network potential
entrepreneurs in each area, no matter whether they are located acrossadministrative boundaries, to learn and encourage one another.
As these rural women entrepreneurs are more interested in social
contribution rather than economic return, they will become a new role modelof social entrepreneurs by earning sufficient funds and by sustaining theirbusinesses.
Key words: Rural, Women, Social entrepreneur, Agriculture, Network

1. Introduction
According to the Employment Status Survey of the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, the total number of new women entrepreneurship is on a clear decline
since 1982. However, when we look at the number of women entrepreneur start-ups in1

Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

agriculture, it has more than doubled from 4,040 of 1997 to 9,757 of 2010 (Figure 1).
On the other hand, behind this increase in start-ups, there are more women
entrepreneurs who close their operation than the same of men, indicating the difficulties
of continuing their business. This study focuses on these women entrepreneurs inagriculture who are on a rising trend, to find out the key factors behind the increase, sothat we may utilize the knowledge to encourage newcomers and build a network ofentrepreneurs both new and old, to help each other sustain businesses.
The primary aims of our research study are, firstly to analyze the actual activities
of women entrepreneurs in agriculture, secondly to examine what is required to sustain
healthy businesses of these agricultural start-ups, thirdly to develop a homepage so thatthese entrepreneurs can easily learn and assist each other, and fourthly to widen thesphere of this network from north Kyushu to all Japan, and on to Asia.

Figure 1. Number of women entrepreneur start-ups in agriculture

2. Analysis of Rural Women Entrepreneurs through Interviews and Questionnaire(1) Interview Survey
In order to find the critical tasks of women entrepreneurs in agriculture, we visitedthe following four entrepreneurs in north Kyushu area (Figure 2) and interviewed themin July 2011:(1) Ms T.I., Advisor of Anzunosato Ichi Users Association, in retail sale ofagricultural products, and management of restaurant(2) Ms S.O., Chairperson of More House, mutual association in agriculture,
producing Bunashimeji mushrooms and asparagus(3) Ms F.M., CEO of Bistro Kururun, restaurant specializing in local foodproducts
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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21(4) Ms T.S., CEO of Budobatake, in retail sale of vegetables, flowers anddelicatessen

Figure 2. Locations of the four interviewees in north Kyushu

From the interview survey, we found out that although there are different tasks
according to each business area, common factors of difficulty for the entrepreneurs tocontinue business can be classified into the following aspects of management:
A. Funding of business:(1) cash flow management, (2) accounting, (3) ways to obtain subsidies,(4) tax management,
B. Personnel:(5) staff recruitment, (6) staff training, (7) obtaining necessary
qualifications,C. Sales promotion:(8) advertising, (9) ways to attract customers, (10) development of sales
routes, (11) gaining new contractors, (12) finding out consumers‟ tastes,
D. Management administration:(13) forecasting adequate sales volume, (14) utilizing computers, and (15)family relationship.
(2) Questionnaire Survey
From the findings of the interviews, we made a questionnaire1 to investigate theactual conditions of rural women entrepreneurs and their difficulties of sustaining
businesses. The following five major questions were introduced as the second step of
the research:
Q1. Business (operation, time of start-up, number of staff, compensation, sales,
marketing methods)3

Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Q2. At start of business (what pushed you to start, funding, management
knowhow)
Q3. Aim and tasks of business (important factors, difficulties, necessary
assistance)
Q4. Future business target (what to do next, requirements for new business)
Q5. About yourself (age, family, working status and time, whether business
aim is attained)
The main question for the statistical analysis is Q3, particularly on “What do you
think is important for your business, and how important is it?” asking about 14 items
from A to N, to answer in four grades of importance: A. freshness of product, B. low
price, C. communication with customers, D. low chemicals/additives, E. local product, F.
selling to local customers, G. administrative guidance, H. smiling staff, I. smiling family,
J. activating local area, K. rate of return, L. technical improvement, M. activating
agriculture, and N. return to investors.
In the questionnaire, we also asked the respondents to write freely on „what sort ofassistance they felt they need‟ in order to investigate what actually is required tocontinue business. In order to conduct the questionnaire on a nationwide basis, we usedthe data from Rural Women Empowerment and Life Improvement Association (WELI)(2006) “All Japan Map of 400 Selected Female Entrepreneurships in Agriculture,
Forestry and Fishery (Nosangyoson Josei Kigyo 400 sen Zenkoku Mappu)”. In this map,
423 women entrepreneurs are introduced, from the challenge program for equal genderparticipation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. Of the total, 245
operations (57.9%) are in „processing and sales‟ division.
Response rate of the questionnaire we conducted in November 2011 was 36.9%
with 156 replies, which is a satisfactory level to conduct the following statisticalanalysis2 and obtain adequate results.
(3) Basic Statistics of the Questionnaire
There are total of 28 questions in the questionnaire, from which we will review the
major statistical outputs. Firstly, the average age of the respondents is 67.7 years, mostof them married, with previous occupational experiences as in Table 1.
Table 1. What was your previous occupation?
Number of responses
Farmer42
Wife of farmer
58
Employee of company or government office36
Teacher
5
Employee of Organization
94

Percentage (%)
27
37
23
3
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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Secondly, when we look at the number of staff at start-up, operations with 1 person
has the highest number, and those with 1 to 5 persons amount to 63, which is 38 percent of the total. On the other hand, operation with more than 20 persons shares 25 percent. However, when we take the number of persons at the time of questionnaire,
operations with 1 to 5 persons shares 22 per cent, and 6 to 10 persons shares 24 per cent,making the share of small operations with less than 10 persons 46 per cent. This result
matches the recent trend of the national data. And operations with over 20 persons at thetime of questionnaire decreases to 14 per cent.
Thirdly, sales volume of the respondents is shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Annual Sales Volume

Basic statistics of the respondents are concluded as follows:(1) Average age is in the latter half of 60s.
(2) Most of the respondents are married.
(3) Majority have background connected to farming without professional
experience of business, government office work or teaching.
(4) Many start as one-person operation and majority has staff of 5 to 10
persons, at the time of questionnaire.
(5) Around 60 per cent of the respondents funded the initial capital with own
money and money of group, rather than loans from financial institutions.
(6) Nearly half of the respondents have sales volume between 10 million to
100 million yen.
(7) Approximately 80 per cent replied they have „mostly attained their initial
goal‟.
(4) Statistical analysis of questionnaire answers
With the overall picture of the women entrepreneurs described above, we will
analyze the following three respects:(1) Indicate overall characteristics of rural women entrepreneurs from statistics.
(2) Classify these women entrepreneurs to find out similarities.

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21(3) Investigate correlation between sales volume and sense of business aim
accomplishment.
(a) Overall Characteristics of Rural Women Entrepreneurs
Here, we analyze eight particular items questioned in Q3.1 on „important factors inbusiness‟ as follows: B. low price, C. communication with customers, D. low
chemicals/additives, G. administrative support, H. smiling staff, I. smiling family, K.
rate of return, and N. return to investors. These eight factors are statistically analyzed byprincipal component analysis with variance-covariance matrix, Varimax rotation. In theprincipal component analysis, the eight factors are described by linear equations asfollows:
Component 1 = C1 × low price + C2 × communication with customers + C3 × low
chemicals/additives + C4 × administrative guidance + C5 × smilingstaff + C6 × smiling family + C7 × rate of return + C8 × return toinvestors, where C1, C2,…, Cn are coefficients.
Output of SPSS, is shown in Table 2 and Table 3. As we apply the data of Table 2,component 1 is expressed as below:
Component 1 = 0.039 × low price + 0.969 × communication with customers + 0.064 ×
low chemicals/additives + 0.024 × administrative guidance + 0.159 ×
smiling staff + 0.185 × smiling family + 0.101 × rate of return + 0.024
× return to investors
Likewise, with the data of Table 2, we obtain component 2 as follows:
Component 2 = 0.035 × low price + 0.141 × communication with customers + 0.001 ×
low chemicals/additives + 0.006 × administrative guidance + 0.916 ×
smiling staff + 0.363 × smiling family + 0.091 × rate of return + 0.101
× return to investors
Table 2. Result of SPSS Analysis I

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

The value of coefficient indicates how much the factor contributes to the result.
Therefore, in the equation of component 1, coefficient “C “ shows the greatest value of0.969, which means the most contributing factor, is „communication with customers‟.
Similarly, when we look into the contributing factors, it is in the order of „smiling staff‟,„rate of return‟, „administrative guidance‟, „low price‟, „low chemicals/additives‟,„return to investors‟, and „smiling family‟, as marked with red squares in Table 2.
Table 3. Result of SPSS Analysis II

We now look into the results shown in Table 3. The first row indicates that
Eigenvalue of component 1 is 1.355 and has explanatory power of 35.907 per cent. In
the fourth column, accumulated variance percentage of each component is indicated.
And we see that from component 1 to component 4, 79.923 per cent of the total can be
explained. Therefore, we can conclude the overall characteristics of rural women
entrepreneurs as follows:(1)In conducting business, the most important factor is „communication withcustomers‟, and then „smiling staff‟, „rate of return‟, „administrative
guidance‟ in the order of importance.
(2) These four factors explain approximately 80 per cent of the total.
The above result of the statistical analysis comes in terms with the interview
research. However, it is worth noting that „communication with customers‟ and„smiling staff‟ come before „rate of return‟.
(b) Grouping rural women entrepreneurs
In the second statistical analysis, we use the same eight factors as variables in thecluster analysis, to define similarities and group rural women entrepreneurs. The eightfactors are B. low price, C. communication with customers, D. low chemicals/additives,
G. administrative guidance, H. smiling staff, I. smiling family, K. rate of return, and N.
return to investors.
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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

The results of the cluster analysis are shown in the dendrogram of Figure 4.
Respondents are largely classified into two groups. In the first stage, grouping is centredwith „smiling staff‟ and „smiling family‟. In the second stage, „communication withcustomers‟ is topped on to the basic group. Then in the third stage, „low
chemicals/additives‟ joins the group, to form a large group of Cluster 1. The other groupconsists of „rate of return‟, „return to investors‟, „administrative guidance‟, and „low
price‟ to form Cluster 2.

Figure 4. Dendrogram

These two clusters are shown in the graph in Figure 5 below. Cluster 1 is indicatedby the circle with blue dots, containing 113 cases, and Cluster 2 is shown by the bigger
circle with green dots on the left, with 24 cases. By the number of cases, Cluster 1 andCluster 2 have a ratio of approximately five to one, meaning that 82 per cent of the
respondents are classified in the first group with „smiling staff‟, „smiling family‟,„communication with customers‟, and „low chemicals/additives‟.

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Figure 5. Cluster analysis(c) Correlation of sales volume and satisfaction
Those who responded „no‟ to Q5.8 asking „Do you think your initial aim at start ofbusiness is mostly accomplished?‟ was less than five per cent of the total. And replies to
Q1.7 „What is your sales volume of the past year?‟ are shown in Figure 3. In the third
statistical analysis, we investigated whether there is a correlation between the fourlevels of sales volume and satisfaction of business aim, by a correlation analysis.
We examined the Kendall Coefficient and the Spearman Coefficient, as in Table 4,
which resulted in low levels of coefficients, indicating there is no significant correlation.
As a consequence, we can say that the respondents do not consider the sales volume as amaterial to judge whether they have attained the initial business aim.
Table 4. Correlation coefficient

Correlation coefficients
Significance level(two sided)N
Kendall Correlation coefficients
Significance level(two sided)
N
Correlation coefficients
Significance level(two sided)
N
Spearman Correlation coefficients
Significance level(two sided)
N

9

1.000
163
-0.133
0.071
157
1.000
163
-0.1450.071
157-0.133
0.071
157
1.000
158
-0.145
0.071
157
1.000
158

Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21(d) Conclusion of the statistical analysis
From the above three statistical analyzes, we conclude as follows:(1) In pursuing business, the most important factor is „communication withcustomers‟ together with „smiling staff‟, „rate of return‟, and„administrative guidance‟, in the order of importance. In other words,„communication with customers‟ and „smiling staff‟ have more value than„rate of return‟ for the respondents.
(2) The above four important factors have explanatory power of nearly 80 per
cent.
(3) The respondents are clustered into two large groups, Group 1 indicatingstrong correlation with „smiling staff‟, „smiling family‟, „communication
with customers‟, and „low chemicals/additives‟. Group 2 although with aweaker tie, associated with „rate of return‟, „return to investors‟,„administrative guidance‟ and „low price‟.
(4) More than 80 per cent of the respondents are classified into Group 1.
(5) There is no statistically significant correlation between sales volume andsatisfaction of initial business aim.
The results of the statistical analysis revealed that the characteristics of the rural
women entrepreneurs have the same features of „Social Entrepreneurs‟, often taken up
recently, and pointed out by Tsuru (2007) and Nakamichi (2011). However, their views
had only been expressed, without any empirical evidence. In this sense, our researchanalysis which started from interviews to four entrepreneurs in north Kyushu area, by
pure coincidence, came to the same conclusion indicated by Tsuru (2007) andNakamichi (2011). Our study investigated the features of rural women entrepreneurs
through empirical analysis and demonstrated that they have the characteristics of social
entrepreneurs, which brings social contribution before rate of return.

3. Development of Homepage for Rural Entrepreneurs(1) Concept of homepage
The following Figure 6 shows the response to the major question in thequestionnaire Q3.3 „What did you find difficult in pursuing your business? (multiple
answers)‟.

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Figure 6. Difficulties in pursuing businessResponses to Q3.4 „What sort of assistance do you need? Please write freely.‟ wereclassified into following subjects in order to find out some solutions:(1) Guidance, education and training(2) Management knowhow(3) Network of people(4) Attracting customers and marketing(5) Developing new products(6) Introducing materials and machinery for processing(7) Finding successors, employing new staff(8) Obtaining subsidies and loans
Government support to agriculture has been implemented from various routes via
municipalities, and particularly since the 1990s, local governments have introduced
many projects under the flag for a gender-equal society. However, these public support
measures tend to go to established operations and it is often difficult for the small
businesses of women entrepreneurs to obtain assistance. For the women who takeresponsibilities of house work and child care, as well as elderly care on top of
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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

agricultural work, it is a high hurdle to climb to obtain necessary information from local
leaders, to go to seminars and to look for those colleagues who may have the similar
objectives. In a leaders‟ seminar held in Tokyo, there were many young female farmers
who claimed “We can only come to these seminars because they are official meetings
held by the government.” “I can‟t find the time to make friends in farming.” “I always
want to participate but it‟s difficult to come for domestic responsibilities.”
To solve these difficulties that came up in the responses to the questionnaire, weconstructed a homepage to help these potential entrepreneurs with easy access to therequired information. Nowadays, we can obtain various information through theInternet, but there are so many websites that it is often time consuming and difficult toreach the most useful information. If there is a tool to look up the required informationfrom „what I need‟ it will enable the rural entrepreneurs to obtain the exact information
they need in a very short time.
Together with required information, fellow partners to pursue business together
would be important to continue business. Sawano (2012) indicates that
entrepreneurships are formed from Improvement of Living Groups3, women‟s divisionof Japan Agricultural Cooperative groups4, or individual network of friends. When it isdifficult to find partners through these routes, it may be useful to find people in thesame area with the same sort of objectives, through the homepage.
It is particularly meaningful to look at the area around the searcher, across local
administrative boarders and municipal units. Those support from municipal units andagricultural cooperatives are often difficult for the women entrepreneurs to obtain and it
may actually be quite practical to find partners across established municipal boarders.
(2) Contents of homepage
Based on the findings described in the above 3.1, we built „Homepage for Rural
Entrepreneurs‟ with the following design concepts:(A) To enable searchers to look up from „what they need‟ and reach major
information easily.
(B) To find fellow partners in the neighboring area.
(C) To look up those established entrepreneurs nationwide in all Japan.
The top page is shown in Figure 7 where we can find three bars for linked pages.
The first one <1> are hot texts link to „Links to get supporting information‟; the second<2> is a hot text links to „Here we are! In your neighborhood‟; and the third link <3> isa hot spot links to „Learn from established entrepreneurs! On the Google map of all
Japan‟.

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Figure 7. Top page

<1> The first link page is ‘Links to get supporting information!’ shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. „Links to get supporting information!‟In the top page, when you click one of the eight categories of supporting
information marked with a big red square (Figure 7), you will move on to Figure 8
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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

where you find more detailed requirements on the left, and the URL of useful websites
to obtain the required information.
<2> The second link is to page ‘Here we are! In your neighborhood’.
When you click a point on the map of north Kyushu, in the top page of Figure 7,
you move to the second page, which is programmed to find those establishedentrepreneurs around your area, using the Google Maps JavaScript API V3. By plotting
your place on the map, neighboring entrepreneurs and major facilities are indicated. It is
programmed to show an area of 30 square kilometres surrounding your place. By using
this page, you will be able to find fellow entrepreneurs with similar objectives or friends
to ask for advice, in the neighborhood, regardless of administrative boundaries.
First, you look for your exact location on the map and click at the spot. Then amarker (green house with flag) appears on the map (Figure 10). Second, you click thegreen marker. Established entrepreneurs, major facilities and institutions in the 30
square kilometres of the location will appear (Figure11).

Figure 9. Your location

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Figure 10. Links to Established Entrepreneurs

And if you wish to visit this marked established entrepreneur, you double click themarker. The shortest route by car to the nearby entrepreneur will appear as in Figure 12.

Figure 11. Route by car to a nearby entrepreneur

By using the efficient functions of this homepage, potential entrepreneurs will beable to look for fellow partners in the geographically nearby location, whether they may
be in the same municipal districts or over the administrative borders. Furthermore,
information of the nearby fellow farmers will be at hand, and one can easily contact
them and also plan to visit them. The 48 farmers‟ market in Kyushu are actuallyprogrammed to appear on the map and it will be a practical tool for the potential
entrepreneurs.
Major parts of the source code are introduced in Figure 12 and Figure 13.

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Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

Figure 12. First part of the source code

Figure13. Major operating part of source code

<3> The third link is to page ‘Learn from established entrepreneurs! On the
Google map of all Japan’.
For the entrepreneurs who are starting business and who wish to develop theirbusiness further, the experiences of the established entrepreneurs will be of great help.
In this page, we have located all the rural women entrepreneurs who participated in the16

Journal of Asian Women’s Studies Vol. 21

questionnaire, as in Figure 14. Markers are placed for all of the 165 locations. Program
for this map was written by also utilizing Google Maps JavaScript API V3.
When you click a marker, info window will appear and you will be able to see theinformation of the established entrepreneur, and if she has a website, you will find thelink as well. For the model homepage, we have placed the information of theentrepreneurs in Kyushu area only.

Figure 14. „Learn from established entrepreneurs! On the Google map of all Japan‟

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4. Conclusion
Major outcomes of this research are as follows:(1) By conducting interview survey to four established rural women entrepreneurs innorth Kyushu area, we obtained some basic data to investigate what assistance isrequired for the female entrepreneurs in agriculture.
(2) We developed and implemented a questionnaire survey on a nationwide basis to 423
potential respondents and collected 156 responses, which made the response rate
36.9 per cent, and used the data for statistical analysis.
(3) We clarified the overall picture of rural women entrepreneurs, from empiricalanalysis consisting of three statistical methods. With the results obtained from theprincipal component analysis, the cluster analysis and the correlation analysis, weconcluded that rural women entrepreneurs withhold the features of social
entrepreneurs. There are many researches on rural women entrepreneurs however
this study has empirically clarified that rural women entrepreneurs have the featuresof social entrepreneurs.
(4) We classified the support required by the rural entrepreneurs and investigated theactual means of obtaining useful information.
(5) Homepage to support entrepreneurs in agriculture was created with practicalinformation for the receivers to actually utilize. By programming with Google Maps
JavaScript API V3, a homepage to network those potential entrepreneurs in eacharea was developed, no matter whether they cross administrative boundaries.
In this way based on the statistical analysis of the data gained from the Interviews
and the Questionnaire it was possible to create the Homepage for rural women
entrepreneurs. If this tool can be utilized through the Internet to enable rural
entrepreneurs with similar objectives to learn from each other and encourage one
another, this will be most rewarding outcome for the researchers.
Furthermore as these rural women entrepreneurs are more interested in the social
contribution of their work, particularly in revitalizing the region and educating children
about food, they will become a new role model of social entrepreneurs when they areable to earn sufficient funds to sustain their businesses. This type of social business will
be important not only in the industrialized countries but also in the developing countries
that require international assistance in the rural areas.

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Notes
1

Actual questionnaire sheet can be found in KFAW Working Paper 2012-2 (KFAW 2012).
Response rate of questionnaires by post has dropped to around 10 per cent recently.
3
To review the status of women in rural areas, local authorities encouraged the women in agricultural
cooperatives to improve their way of living by forming groups to help and learn from each other.
4
Agricultural cooperatives have practically ruled the local agriculture from finance, cultivating guidance
to purchase of fertilizers, and even electrical appliances or insurances of each household.
2

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