For young Japanese, it's back to the farm (日本の若者が職業として、農業への関心が高まっている!?）

For young Japanese, it's back to the farm (日本の若者の間で職業として、農業への関心が高まっている!?）
A motley group of unlikely farmers descended on the countryside in Yokoshibahikari one recent Sunday, fresh towels around their necks, shiny boots on their feet.
"This is harder than it looks," said Tatsunori Kobayashi, a spiky-haired janitor from Tokyo Disney Resort, as he tromped through a mustard spinach patch with a seed planter, irregular furrows stretehing out behind him.
He is part of Japan's 2,400-strong Rural Labour Squad, urban trainees dispatched to the countryside under a pilot programme to put Japan's underemployed youth to work tilling its firms.
Started last month as part Prime Minister Taro Aso's stimulus plan, the programme stems from growing concern about both the plight of Japan's younger workers and the dismal state of firms. In a play on words, the squad's name in Japanese-Inala-de-hatarakitai-is also its rallying cry: "We want to work in the countryside!" The predicament of Japanese in their 20s and 30s dates back to the lost decade of the 1990s, when many failed to find good, stable work. Today, disproportionate number endure low-wage job - a potential portent for America's students and first-time job seekers plunging into a shallow job market in the United States.
As the Japanese recession has worsened, younger workers have taken the brunt of wage cuts and layoffs, especially in manufacturing. Now the government views the slump - Japanese exports fell almost 50 percent year to year in February - as a chance to divert idel labor to sectors that have long suffered from worker shortages, like agriculture.
Many young Japanese, for their part, have shown a growing interest in farming as disillusionment rises over the grind of city jobs and layoffs. Agricultural job fairs have been swamped with hundreds of applicants: one in Osaka attracted 1,400 people. "Young people want jobs, and farmers need the extra hands," said Isao Muneta, an agriculture ministry official who coordinates the 1.3 billion yen ($13 million) programme, part of a larger stimulus package. " It's the perfect match."
Whether it will save Japan's deteriorating economy is something else. "Rural communities could benefit from an influx of young people,' said Masashi Umemoto at the National agricultural Research Center. "But it's unrealistic to look to agriculture as a solution to the country's unemployment problems."
He added, " There aren't enough farming job." Japanese farming is a picture of inefficiency, and the rural work force is graying. A decline in rice prices has hit farms hard - only the largest farms still turn a profit from harvesting rice, forcing farmers to take on extra jobs. The farms most desperate for workers do not have the means to pay as little as $1,500 a month and are often seasonal. Overgrown plots abound in Yokoshibahikari, a town of 26,000 about 43 miles east of Tokyo. "We're all old folk and thankful to have young people come help us," said Hitoshi Suzuki, 57, and head of a cooperative of family farms that share equipment to reduce overhead costs. (One of the cooperative's famer is 83.)
Rural communuties themselves effectively shut out new blood by making it difficult for outsiders to set up their own farms, says Takayuki Yoshioka, a coordinator at the nonprofit organisation that runs the Yokoshibahikari programme. People with no local farming committees that can take years.
"I believe the possibilities are limitless in agriculture," said Yoshioka, who is interested in starting his own farm. "But there are also big barriers."
Shinji Akimoto, who until recently worked in information technology, is not intimidated.
Fearful of constant staff cuts as business deteriorated, Akimoto, 31, Quit his job last month and days later started training in Yokoshibahikari. His three day, government-financed training programme has been a succession of whirlwind lessons in rice and vegetable planting, cleaning pig sties and feeding cattle. "I had nothing much to lose, and in times like these, I felt I needed to learn to make my own living." he said. He chucked and twirled a finger in the air. "Did you know pigs really do have curly tails?"
Akimoto's team of 10 is a hodgepodge; the Disney janitor, a recently laid-off landscape artist and several collage students. They all get 7,000 yen a day, about $70, and free food and board.
They all shared a common complaint; there was no convenience store nearby drinks and snacks. One trainee persuaded a farmer to lend him his light truck, so he could get cigarettes.
"My friends think I'm crazy for coming here," said Tomoka Inoue ,20, a management major who said she was widening her job search to include farming, "But I think people are becoming more aware of where our food comes from, and I want to get more involved with that. (THE HINDU, FRIDAY, APRIL 17,2009)
今日の一言
農家が楽な仕事と勘違いして、容易に考えてる人が多いのかなぁ？　日本は農業や日本の伝統産業などを大事にしているとは思わない。　成功している農家は、最初から大地主で、お金持ちだ。　利益が上がらない農家が毎年廃業してるのに・・・　日本の政治家は本当に適当というか・・・その場しのぎの発言が多い。　しかし、良くも悪くも、こうして若者に農業が注目されている今、近い結果を見ず、10年、20年、後を見た、農業発展のプランにしてほしいものだ。
それよりも・・・サラリーマン・・・パワーないなぁ。若者がんばれ。流されるな！