Cosmopolitan Rurality, Depopulation, and Entrepreneurial Ecosyste ...

land to the company, but the number of shareholders is quite limited, with most of the capital coming from the two men who started PF. Returns on leased land are small, but farm families often have a strong connection to the land because it was inherited from their ancestors, which generates an impetus to continue working the land. For some, at least, passing on the land to the next generation in good condition—meaning that the land is productive—is a moral imperative that is taken quite seriously and can motivate land-holders to continue farming even if it is not particularly profitable and requires considerable work.³⁹ The business and labor assistance available through PF offers an alternative to the labor involved with farming and an incentive to keep land in one’s family rather than selling to corporate farms, which is becoming increasingly common in Japan.

While PF manages rice production for members, it also has the aim of using organic farming techniques as much as possible. By using organic methods, the owners hope to create a luxury item in the form of premium-quality rice, which then can support the high production costs associated with locally grown rice in Japan, which is usually considerably more expensive than imported rice. PF also provides a corporate environment—which contrasts with the typical family farm—where younger people can work and gain experience in farming practices or access mentoring to help set up farming-related businesses of their own; in some ways, it provides an entrepreneurship mentoring program in that PF is partially intended to provide younger farmers with the knowledge and experience necessary to operate their family farms more as businesses. In part, PF represents an entrepreneurial response to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which poses a threat to Japanese rice farmers due to its potential to open the doors to importing increased amounts of less expensive—and what is perceived as lower quality—rice. It also should be placed within the context of agricultural reforms pursued by the Abe Administration, in which controls on national agricultural cooperative associations over local cooperatives and farmers were relaxed somewhat and which has opened the door for novel businesses like PF focused on organic farming