The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-22
Agrarian Movement in Japan

pECENTLY a conservative Japanese newspaper,
Az Iorodzu" thus characterized the present situa-
ton in Japan: eve (that is Japan precisely
under the same conditions as those of France and
Russia before the respective outbreak of their ter
ribe @ revolutions. Revoution-such is the cur
rent watchword among the masses of the people.
Who can tell how soon it will turn into reaty?"
The characterization given by the newspaper can
hardly be considered exaggeration. At the
present time witness in Japan of symp-
toms pointing to the approach of a revolutionary
situation, and a prominent place among these symp-
toms, if not the chief one, belongs doubt to the
peasant movement.
Ever since the famous rice riots" of 1918 the
movement Of the japanese peasantry never reached
such high pitch it does just Yet whilst the
trace riots were caused by incidental and passing
phenomena (the speculation in rice), the present
wave of the peasant movement constitutes the logi
cal outcome Of the regular discomfort of the Japan
csc peasants with their economic conditions which
grows year by year.
The principal figures in the agrarian struggle
are the tenant farmers who are up in arms against
the landowners Seventy per cent Of the peasants
in Japan arc compelled to rent lands either wholly
partly, to supplement their paltry land aotments
which are inadequate to maintain their families or
even themselves.
The discomfort of the tenant farmers finds its
expression in hundreds and now in thousands of
now involved Starting with IS conflicts in 1918 the
agrarian movement registered already 2,2O6 con-
ficts in 1925 and threatens to step the figure
of 5000 in the current year. In these conflicts there
involved hundreds of thousands of tenant farm
ers and tens Of thousands of landowners (the major
ity of them in Japan petty landowners).
However. an important feature of the movement
is not only the cumulative scale but also the equal
ity" Of the agrarian conflict. And here it ought to
be said that this quality" becomes ever more I'M
pleasant for the landlords as the years go by. It
is the consensus Of opinion among Japanese news
papers that the landowners were never so cordially
hated by the peasant tenant-farmers as they are
Just now, whilst this hatred grows from year to
year and from month to month becoming ever more
implacabe. According to traditional Japanese ethics
the tenant-farmcr should look upon his landlord
a son does upon his father. Well, if such an
attitude ever existed in japan, it has long since
vanished. The chief and usual demand of the ten
ant-farmers is for reduction of rent by about so
per cent. In the past there were also cases when
the tenant-farmers asked for a reduction in rent
Ito be sure, not to such a high percentagel but
such demands were usually associated with some
extraordinary happening, such as an earthquake
failure OF the crops, etc. Even then the peasants
dared not demand more than a temporary reduction
of the rent. Now it is quite different story with
the demands made by the peasants. Now thew de-
mand the reduction of rent without any exceptional
causes, and they want that reduction forever into
the bargain.
In the event of the landlord refusing to grant
the demands Of the peasants land this is nearly
always the easel, the tenant-farmers simply cease
paying their rent. The landlord then resorts to
method the mention of which causes the peas
ants blood to boil namely to debarring the peasants
from the land at the height of the rice-planting
season. This literally involves the death Of the
peasant and his family from starvation The de-
barring Of peasants from the field for failure to paw
rent or taxes is called in japanese "Tatsiiri Kinsi"
and there more hateful words to the Japanese
peasants than these To be sure, there is vet an
other method of coercion used by the landlords
against their tenants consisting in putting an arrest
upon the crop of rice, which is called in Japanese
"Sasige Tatsi 0sae" This method is Just as hateful
to the peasants as the "Tatsiiri Kinsi" method.
The landlords in their fight against the peasant
farmers are backed by the entire machinery Of the
state the police, the army, the courts of law etc
On the other hand the peasants act collectively and
upon the principle of zone for all and all for one"
The fight between the peasants and the land
owners IS frequently accompanied by bloody encoun-
tiers. Even the bourgeois japanese newspapers are
replete with descriptions of such encounters. The
fighting methods vary. The peasants by whole viii
lagos overrun the landlords estates raidng and burn
ing their homes and causing injury, and sometimes
death to the landlords and their defenders It hap
pened also that landlords and policemen even chiefs
OF police, ducked in the river or in the pond
Only few years ago peasant would ever dare
to think Of such an action.
The peasants resort also to "moral force" Thus
during the conflicts the peasant children refuse to
attend school, if they do attend they keep on
singing revolutionary songs. The young peasants
refuse to turn up for military training and so on
Thus the peasants combine active fighting with
sort OF passive resistance" But, of course, active