The point here was that you can farm small acreages and make a good profit doing it. For reasons of geography and history Japanese rice farms are small and can not easily be aggregated and that is fine. Better 100,000 independent moonshine farmers than 100 mega farms owned by banks and corporations. On 10 acres with access to modern machinery (your own or the co-op's) your yearly work is done in days not months. That is fine too. You can have another job or raise your children or work in an office or factory. And at this point it is necessary. Japanese rural areas need all hands on deck. I know a small town mayor who drives a bus part time and also grows rice. Skin in the game. "But these farms are subsidized!" Yes and show me a country who doesn't subsidize their agricultural sector or rural areas? This is fine. "But these farmers are all old!" Yes but that isn't the real issue. It is fantastic that old people can contribute to society, make a profit and earn money even after retirement. The problem here is that there is a huge successor problem if no young people take it up. This is a topic for another tweet though, and also it is the same in your country but even worse: if a young person in the US wants to get into farming but don't have the million needed to get started? Tough luck kid. Japanese farms are small and that is a good thing. They could aggregate a little more here and there but the big threat to Japanese farms isn't scale or a lack of land even, it is a lack of water. Wet rice field farming is hugely water intensive. I have met rice farmers in Southeast Asia who could run three harvests a year on their lots and live extremely well of their labor. But they can't get the water, so they run one harvest and lose money, get depressed, see their children leave the farm for the city etc. This is the real tragedy here.
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/b26d8a2a0f8cefaed660c595a41b4aec0bdec6794e4491146b4c92bd34f6f030.file
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/f71cb430d93ccd37a78c5de6b435d19ff7c5a04c43acd2b14bd29d38f385f557.file