Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/81633

The subject of this paper is to clarify the current state of social relationships between farm household members and those outside the household in Hokkaido. We conducted interviews with farmers in three categories. The first category is the status of participation in agriculture-related organizations/groups, as well as the local community. The third category is about the sense of belonging to the region. The survey revealed the following points. Farm household members of different generations participate in different numbers of agricultural and administrative organizations. The manager generation is representative of both management and households. Therefore, the number of participants will increase. On the other hand, the participation level will decrease significantly after retirement. The amount of interaction with friends was relatively low between generations. The most common answer when asked where they think they belong was “former agricultural cooperative” in the region. This geographical area often overlaps with former municipalities. In general, men are more involved in external groups in the successor and manager generation. However, after retirement, the difference sharply narrows or reverses. Through participation in external groups, farm household members tend to have a sense of belonging to the region. Therefore, the younger generation has a sense of belonging to a wider region.