Solution to Japan's Jobless Problem: Turn City Workers Into Farmers

As someone who spent quite a bit of his youth farming: these people are doing it wrong.<p>Hoeing weeds in a field that hasn't even been disced or planted yet? Sorting beans by hand? Planting wheat by hand? Fertilizing by hand? Digging ditches by hand?<p>That's some seriously medieval stuff. I'm sure it's traditional, etc, but it's not efficient, and it doesn't scale to large populations. I don't even want to think about what they aren't doing regarding soil chemistry, pest control, etc.

Okay this isn't as bad as I first thought from the title. I was thinking USSR style where the government forced more workers into farming than using technology.<p>This looks like the Japanese government is trying to protect its agriculture industry, which a complete collapse of agriculture can be dangerous for a country. The USA has energy dependency, would you really want food dependency?

I believe Japan has some serious tariffs on food, thus allowing small scale farming to exist.