In hard times, we can get back to our roots.

But ... subsidies -- uh-oh, subsidies!! What would Norman Myers say about all this!!?

The Japan Times reports on this new subsidy program, which according to the Times is the first time that the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ministry will launch a job-creation program. The program will send urban youth (under 40 years old) to train at existing farms as a way to prepare them to open their own farming ventures. They will receive hands-on training in addition to instruction in farm management and marketing. Cool! Can foreigners get in on this?

With Japan's rural population aging -- and declining -- the job program seeks to respond both to the economic downtown and rural development needs. 

Frankly though, the program sounds a little fishy. Payments will be directed at the current farm owners, at about $1,000 / per month / per trainee -- for one year. Aside from the benefits of job-training for the trainees, the program sounds like little more than inexpensive labor for existing farms. I mean, wouldn't someone receive the same or similar training automatically by laboring on a farm for a year? I don't see exactly why farms need to be paid to hire laborers -- unless they can't afford to hire workers in the first place ... but then that doesn't bode well for the prospects of opening new agricultural businesses. 

I think perhaps subsidies more aimed at the young farmers themselves, relating to the high start-up costs associated with the purchase of land and machinery, would be a more realistic approach to encouraging youth to work the land. Alternatively, specific best management practices training at model farms might normalize such training and guarantee that the training is the sort that the government hopes to promote for the future.

In any case, the program will begin next year. 

It's blizzarding outside right now in Sapporo. Not much farming activity going on. Merry Christmas.