The Relationship between Family Budget and Non-Farming Wages in the Tohoku Region

Majority of the studies on low-wage levels in Tohoku, Japan have been focusing on the analysis of part-time non-farming jobs for males. On the other hand, some former studies have analyzed the full-time non-farming jobs for males in Tohoku and also indicate low-wage levels in these cases. The previous studies presented two hypotheses in order to explain the structure of the full-time low-wage levels for males in the farming regions. One is with regard to the influence of low-wage levels for part-time jobs, and the other pertains to farmers' family norms. However, the conclusions of these studies were rather hypothetical and vague. This article reveals the structure of the low-wage levels for full-time non-farming jobs for males in Tohoku by analyzing the results of interviews of farmers in three villages. The results indicate that most farming households in the Tohoku region should combine the incomes of all the adult members of the family in order to meet their family budget. However, this scenario differs from that in the Kinki region where the breadwinners earn enough to meet their family bud-get. The study also highlights a generation gap in the job structure in the Tohoku region. The younger generation holds full-time non-farming jobs, but most of their wages only match the family budget per adult, and not per family. Therefore, these individuals need to maintain the farmers' family norms in order to share the family budget among all the adults in the family, and therefore, the farmers' family norm is considered the defining factor of the low-wage levels of non-farming jobs in Tohoku, Japan