Farming and agriculture in Japan, 1960's --Film 3860

Farming and agriculture in Japan. Of the 142,727 square miles of land in Japan, only 16% is arable. Yet, this country is one of the foremost rice exporters in the world. Despite the harshness of the mountainous terrain, the Japanese farmer has used his ingenuity to develop cultivation techniques which make use of the arable land. Rural Life in Japan. Men and women work year-round, using every type of machine adaptable to small plots of land, to squeeze productivity from the earth. Today, many farmers are moving to the city. Disappearance and change in rural traditions of Japan. Opens on map of Japan showing HONSCHU area and the Fudschi-san (Mount Fuji) mountain with its populated valley. Aerial shot of agriculturally cultivated fields. Shot of rice field and close up of a small hut with a thatched roof. Petrol driven machine (like a lawn mower) prepares rice field for planting. Mount Fuji in background. Paddy fields being scored with wood for planting. Woman performing traditional "woman's task" of gathering crops. Men and women gather tea harvest. Tea put in wicker baskets. Some tea cut with mechanical trimmer, the finer teas are picked by hand. Field of ripe and golden rice. Rice grain hung on wooden frames to be dried. Farmers have picnic in rice field. Threshing rice with machine - many people help. Rice put on conveyor belt, sorted into baskets and then poured into sacks. Sacks loaded into van. Vanload of rice delivered to co-operative for selling. Woman tilling the soil for wasabi planting. Strawberries grown in special enclosures - man waters plants with a hose. Coastal area - muddier climate - fields of crops and farm house. Hot house full of large plants. Woman waters them with a hose. Man makes a temporary hot house out of bamboo and plastic. Strawberries being harvested. Farmer's wife sorts harvest and carefully displays and packages the fruit to be sold. Peanut plants being roughly pulled out of the ground. Pan around many fields. Aerial shot of many fields. Mandarin orange grove. Fruit being pulped for juice (?) basic equipment. Harvesting oranges in November. Men carry heavy baskets across their shoulders. Basket lowered down to van by a mechanical pulley and rope. Women at the co-operative sort the fruit. It goes past on a large conveyor belt and is packaged for export. Small oranges are peeled for canning. Canning process shown. Can loaded into boxes marked "Three Diamonds". Fruit market. Lots of produce imported. The end.