Positive Effects Of Modernization In Japan

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As modernization swept through rural Japan, it had a transformative power on the countryside. It has reshaped the daily lives of the inhabitants of the farming communities and promises to affect the future prosperity of the region. Haruko and her family experience these effects in their own lives, both the positive aspects as well as the negative. While modernization will likely destroy the pattern of the old way of life in the farming community, it provides a path forward for these families that otherwise would be left behind in abject poverty. One of the most visible changes in the lives of Haruko’s family as a result of modernization is displayed through the rice plains. Modernization through Shō-ichi’s vision has brought machinery to the …show more content…

The growing trend of globalization and foreign trade has made income from farming an inconsistent figure. Foreign goods have become necessities of their farming process and the price of these goods depended on the international market, as does the price the family would receive from their crops. These tendencies make obtaining an outside income essential. Accordingly, the mechanization of the rice paddies aids Haruko’s family by allowing them to spend less time farming and more working at a stable job. One could argue that modernization itself has made such occupations indispensable, but this view often ignores the reality of the Japanese rice market which is oversupplied by domestic grain. To counteract this problem, the government subsidizes farmers “to keep their land fallow” and “to grow other crops instead.” In the case of Haruko’s family, she served as the main, and often, only worker of farm and the family supplemented their income through producing tobacco and pig farming. In addition, she would work part-time in a factory or as a day laborer in a nearby town, and even Obāsan sought outside income. Like typically farming families, the Utsunomiya family “derived sixty to eighty percent of their incomes from nonfarm sources or supplementary farm

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