ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the fortunes and misfortunes of a nation's farming industry evolving in the midst of a meteoric rise in domestic industrial development during the second half of the last century. It provides a review of farming in Japan, highlighting contemporary pressures and practices, an essential context in which to set the consideration of farm succession in this country. Japan's customs and practices on inheritance, including farmland inheritance, are based on primogeniture. However, the current civil law secures the equal rights of inheritance for property in general. To ensure the viability of farm businesses, therefore, the government provides exemption for farmland from inheritance tax when one heir inherits the farmland solely. The National Chamber of Agriculture (NCA) highlights several different approaches to succession. In some cases, this involves the sale of the property to the beginning farmer or long-term lease agreements, whilst in others gradual transfers are affected by incorporation.
