A major challenge facing Japan's agriculture is the aging of its farmers. Today, over half of Japan's farmers are 60 years of age or older. The country's agriculture is labor intensive and human productivity continues to decline as farmers grow older. For example, some vegetable farmers have stopped growing crops like watermelons and pumpkins because of the strength required to harvest and handle these heavy crops. The farm work force is supplied primarily by family members, but last year only 1,600 young people entered full-time employment on Japan's 3.7 million farms.
Young people prefer to move to cities and work in less physically demanding and more lucrative jobs.
It is difficult for a young farmer looking for a wife to find a woman interested in the rigorous labor of farm life. Some are marrying women from other Asian countries who are willing to work on farms. It is also difficult to hire a non-family member to work on the farms because most prefer to work in a more industrialized occupation. While very large amounts of money are invested in agricultural research in Japan, the results have not been impressive. Two reasons stand out as primary causes for these disappointing results.