> You have to cultivate any farmland that comes with the deed. You cannot sell it without special permission. There is a whole lot of paperwork to deal with suc

> You have to cultivate any farmland that comes with the deed. You cannot sell it without special permission. There is a whole lot of paperwork to deal with such situations. In the book How Asia Works, Studwell argues that the small-plot farms that the government of Japan seems to 'encourage' don't make sense and are a hinderance: * https://www.gatesnotes.com/How-Asia-Works https://www.gatesnotes.com/How-Asia-Works They were fine initially as developing countries have an 'excess' of labour, and small farms need more workers, but once industrialization starts, labour is better used in factories and other high value chain parts of the economy, and it's better to mechanize/automate larger farms. Japan did move up the value chain, but farm-plot consolidation didn't really happen, so a large portion of farms are run by an aging population.