Extension Services in Japan after the World War II

After the World War II, agricultural and rural development policy was carried out through enhancing productivity and better life to democratize the society and economy. In 1948, agricultural extension service programme was introduced and in 1949 improvement of living conditions service was added by the enactment of the Agricultural Improvement Promotion Law. The importance attached to extension service was to bridge the gap between the state experiment as well as research institutions and individual farmers. Diffusing scientific knowledge of agricultural production and everyday life were pursued. Agricultural cooperatives and the joint programmes between  Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and prefectural governments were the  two driving forces to carry out the objectives.

The joint programme was organized by extension staff posted at extension centres of prefectures and technical experts posted at extension centres of prefecture and MAF. The technical experts trained the extension staff and the extension staff visited villages. It is notable that the extension centres of prefectures had various functions of coordination; 1) coordination among staff activities, 2) planning, 3) coordination among municipalities and production groups, 4) collection and supply of information about agriculture and rural life of farmers, 5) encouraging new comers, and 6) research and analysis to accumulate scientific data on soil, plant growth etc.

In 1998 total number of staff were 10,604 covering 510 extension centres in 47 prefectural government bodies. It is pointed out that linkage between the staff and farmers has been well established at the grass root level.  

Agricultural Extension and Improvement of Living Conditions through Radio Programme

As stated above, land reform, democratization of agricultural cooperatives and agricultural extension programme were three main pillars that promoted democratization of Japanese rural society. Through the innovative technical guidance, bringing up the farmers who thought and acted on one's own initiative and educating farmers concerning democracy were pursued. Radio broadcasting and printed materials were utilized to achieve the purpose of the agricultural extension programme. This was effective, since by the end of the 1950s a radio set came into wide use in farm households.

Table 3 shows that radio programmes chosen by rural population of Niiharu village in Gunma prefecture (see 3-5.). 70 per cent of the respondents gave first priority to news and 27 per cent of them chose weather forecast secondarily. Farm household hour was third in order. Extension staff saw the necessity of giving farmers and rural youth basic knowledge of meteorology or agricultural science to supplement radio programmes.

It is notable that through group listening, promoters of agricultural extension grew up. In Nigata prefecture, for instance, among radio programmes broadcast for farm households, the programme entitled techniques of living was a good example that encouraged group listening. After the radio programmes of two years　(6:30-6:45 in the Friday and Saturday morning from 1961 to 1962)was over, the members of the listening group formed an association to improve living conditions under the guidance of extension staff. Moreover, from the association able leaders of improving living condition had come forth in large numbers (JICA, 2001).

A Nonformal Organized Class under the Framework of Social Education and Radio Groups

In order to illustrate radio group's achievement, an agricultural youth class held by the board of education in Niiharu village is worthy of note. Table 4 shows that in 1951, 33 per cent of the adult population in the village got only elementary education and 56 per cent received secondary education. Less than 25 per cent of the aged group went to upper secondary education, viz., high school (Board of Education, 1965). The agricultural youth class succeeded in developing human resources through effective vocational training and providing supplementary courses to lower secondary school.

 State and local governments started promoting the several social education programmes to provide learning opportunities. Local public organizations or citizen's public halls and other social education facilities started to give various classes and lectures. Under the plan, after two years’ preparation the board of education decided and in 1952 the managing committee for the citizen's public hall started classes for village youth between the ages of fifteen to eighteen.

The objective was to provide the youth who chose farming with basic knowledge of farm management and farming techniques. To bring up the backbone of farmers in the locality was also aimed at. Classes were held every Saturday from 8:40 to 17:15 (in winter 9:00 to 16:40). Students had to attend classes forty-five days a year and left the school after three years’ attendance. The part-time lecturers were a principal and teachers of an academic high school, teachers of an agricultural high school as well as a commercial high school, agricultural extension staff, a car mechanics and the alumnae. For general education course, the same textbooks used by the academic high school were chosen and for agricultural course ones used by the agricultural high school were taken up. It is notable that textbooks for Japan Broadcasting Corporation were used since 1962. Table 5 shows that about 13 per cent of the total school hours were occupied by group listening in the classrooms. Students were asked to listen to the radio programme for rural youth at home. In the classrooms, students made efforts to understand the contents fully through listening to the recorded programme once again.

As table 6 shows, the enrollment ratio reached 100 per cent in 1959 and started to decline. The number of enrollment decreased because the steady drain of rural youth to non-agricultural sectors in cities during high economic growth period of the 1960s. As table 1 shows, the enrollment ratio of secondary school has reached about 83 in 1965, when the unique class for rural youth was closed. Budget per student was comparatively low (see table 7). The project was highly evaluated as the two main objectives were fulfilled (Board of Education, 1965).

Notes

1.   'Group listening’ (radio groups) was a form of education. Organized groups listen to some educational programmes. The following are general factors to define group listening (Kurota: 152-153): regular programmes  are maintained, listeners have common living environment, the organizers lead the groups, the radio is placed in public space of easy access.

2.    A technical continuation school was organized by the elementary school law of 1890 and provided upper elementary education. The period of attendance was less than three years and facilities for elementary education were utilized.

3.    The Fundamental Law of Education 1947(Law No. 25), Article 6 School Education: The schools prescribed by law shall be public nature and, besides the state and local public bodies, only the juridical persons prescribed by law shall be entitled to establish such schools.

4.    Teachers of the schools prescribed by law shall be servants of whole community. They shall be conscious of their mission and endeavour to discharge their duties. For this purpose, the status of teachers shall be respected and their fair and appropriate treatment shall be secured’ (Research and Statistics Planning Division, 2000).

5.   Number of citizen' public halls in Gunma Prefecture (2000) is as follows.

                                            City    Town   Village    Total

Number of Local Govt.          11      30      25              66

Number of Public Hall         125      57      29            211

         Table 1  Historical trend in enrollment in Japan

Note: Upper elementary schools are counted as secondary school enrollment.
Source: (Research: 18).

Table 2:  Changes in the percentage distribution of enrolment educational level in Japan

Table 3:  Radio programmes chosen in order of preference by the head of household of
Niiharu village

Table 7: Budget for agricultural youth class
(Yen, currency rate; US$1=360yen)

	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963
State subsidy		31500	6300	5700	60000	8000		50000	20000	30000	30000	50000
Prefectural subsidy				1000			50000		16000	20000	20000	40000
Village	121737	148008	175006	196114	257812	327340	4479301	405967	529954	450861	424190	448914
Total	121737	179508	181306	202814	317812	335340	4529301	455967	565954	400861	474190	538914
No. of Student	62	90	101	103	97	123	107	103	82	56	35	34
Budget per student	1963	1994	1795	1969	3276	2726	42329	4426	6901	8051	13548	15850

Note: No. of students includes non-enrollment course students..
Source: (Board:127)