> I read a book review [1] that discussed how land reform, specifically distributing land to small farmers, seems to be a reason why some Asian countries did we

> I read a book review [1] that discussed how land reform, specifically distributing land to small farmers, seems to be a reason why some Asian countries did well. This is about improving agricultural productivity. I have read that book as well: The point of wasn't (entirely?) about agricultural productivity, but rather about giving every one / peasants a job to do to earn a living. As a country's economy progressed into higher value areas you wanted the people to leave the farms and move into factories. Over time farms should be consolidated and mechanized so that less labour is needed to produce food and more labour can create (proverbial) widgets and stuff. The books describes this as one of Japan's 'failures': there are still a lot of small, unconsolidated farms being worked by aging farmers, with little interest from younger people on working in that area. The authors argue that the answer is to consolidate the farms and mechanize, but that seems to be a difficult thing to do in Japan, culturally speaking.