TOKYO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua/APP): The number of Japan’s self-employed farmworkers plunged by 25.1 percent in 2025 from five years ago to 1.02 million, marking the largest-ever decline, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Meanwhile, the average age of Japan’s core farmworkers edged down to 67.6 from 67.8 in 2020 — the first decline since 1995 — reflecting the impact of retirements on the workforce, the ministry’s latest census showed.
The data underscores the continued contraction of a sector vital to the country’s food security, driven largely by an aging population, Japan Today reported.
The shrinking number of farmworkers in the latest census reflects the lack of people taking up the profession, especially young people, deepening concerns about an increase in abandoned agricultural land, the report said.
The number of farm business entities, including corporations, fell by 23 percent to 828,000 from the previous survey, marking the largest decline since comparative data became available in 2005, according to the census.