Mitsuru YAMAMOTO(Saitama Univ., Japan)
In Japan, the law for farmlands in the urban areas(Seisan-Ryokuchi-Hou) has been amended in 1991, and enforced in 1992. By this law farmlands in "urban areas" has been divided into "farmland for urbanization" and "farmland for farm operation" inner the three biggest metropolitan areas. Farmers could choose their own farmland either "farmland for urbanization" or "farmland for farm operation". If farmland is designated as "farmland for farm operation", farmers have to manage their farmland over 30 years, and instead they enjoy exemption from high property land tax. Farmers in the three metropolitan areas have been faced with the choice weather they continue to manage farm or not.
In this paper the author tries to clarify the regional differentiation of the designation of "farmland for farm operation", and characteristics of farm management in "farmland for farm operation", then consider the sustainability of urban agriculture in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
Proportion of "farmland for farm operation" to "urban area" has been higher in the inner suburbs, where urbanization has already developed, and lower in the outer suburbs, where urbanization is just now developing.
Farmers in the inner suburbs have chose to sustain their agriculture, because of intensive cultivation of vegetables with stable side jobs including real estate agent or owner of apartment. On the other hands, farmers in the outer suburbs tended to choose abandonment of farmland cultivation, because of uncertainty of circumstances under the pressure of urbanization. Urban agriculture in the inner suburbs of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area has higher sustainability than that in the outer suburbs.