Ogata-mura : sowing dissent and reclaiming identity in a Japanese farming village
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Ogata-mura : sowing dissent and reclaiming identity in a Japanese farming village
(Asian anthropologies, v. 7)
Berghahn Books, c2012
Available at 15 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Following the Second World War, a massive land reclamation project to boost Japan's rice production capacity led to the transformation of the shallow lagoon of Hachirogata in Akita Prefecture into a seventeen-thousand-hectare expanse of farmland. In 1964, the village of Ogata-mura was founded on the empoldered land inside the lagoon and nearly six hundred pioneers from across the country were brought to settle there. The village was to be a model of a new breed of highly mechanized, efficient rice agriculture; however, the village's purpose was jeopardized when the demand for rice fell, and the goal of creating an egalitarian farming community was threatened as individual entrepreneurialism took root and as the settlers became divided into political factions that to this day continue to struggle for control of the village. Based on seventeen years of research, this book explores the process of Ogatamura's development from the planning stages to the present. An intensive ethnographic study of the relationship between land reclamation, agriculture, and politics in regional Japan, it traces the internal social effects of the village's economic transformations while addressing the implications of national policy at the municipal and regional levels.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Village and the Issues
Putting Ogata-mura under the Lens
Problems - Community Planning, Transition Economy, and Conflict
Chapter 1. Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics in Japan
Agricultural and Regional Policy
Carrots from Heaven
Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics - Reflections
Chapter 2. Reclamation and the Old Social Order
Hachirogata Before the Reclamation
The Reclamation
Settlement
Loneliness, Depression and Tensions
The Cooperative Groups
Social Organization Beyond the Group Level
The End of the Settlement Phase
Utopia Lost?
Chapter 3. The Storm and the Aftermath
Dark Clouds on the Horizon
The Deluge
Why did the Clouds Burst?
The Beautification Campaign Accelerates
Big Plans and High Hopes
The Sociopolitical Costs of Cosmetic Surgery
Chapter 4. Rice: Alliances, Institutions, Frictions
Rice Marketing in the Village
Business and Politics in an Ogata-mura Neighborhood
Rice Farming and Business Intertwined
Chapter 5. Politics and the New Social Order
The Interplay of Opposing "Parties"
The Election of 2000
Developments Following the Election of 2000
The Election of 2004
A Fracture Forms in the Opposition Party
The Election of 2008
The Changing Political Landscape
Chapter 6. What Can We Learn from Ogata-mura?
Plans, Policies, and Politics - The Big Picture
Plans, Policies, and Politics - The Small Picture
A Model Farming Village?
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"