etween 1914 and
1919 the number of farmers (landowners and tenants) increased 30,293.
While from 1909 to 1914 the percentage of landowners fell from 33.27
to 31.73, the percentage of tenant farmers rose from 27.69 to 27.87
and the percentage of persons partly owner and partly tenant from
39.04 to 40.40. See Appendix XXXIV.

RURAL AND URBAN POPULATIONS [LXXVIII]. The following table shows the
percentage of the population living in communes under 5,000 and 10,000
inhabitants in 1913 and 1918:

Year | Percentage of Population living in | Percentage of Families
| Communities | engaged in Agricultural
|------------------------------------| to Total Families in
| under 5,000 | under 10,000 | Japan Proper
------|---------------|--------------------|------------------------
1913 | 50.44 | 72.39 | 57.6
1918 | 46.23 | 67.71 | 52.3
------|---------------|--------------------|------------------------
| -4.21 | -4.68 | -5.3
--------------------------------------------------------------------

These figures clearly indicate the decrease of the rural population.
To take 10,000 inhabitants as the demarcation line between urban and
rural population is probably less correct than to take a demarcation
line of 7,500 inhabitants. A mean of the two percentages of
populations living in communities under 5,000 and under 10,000
inhabitants shows 61.41 per cent, in 1913 and 56.97 per cent, in 1918,
a decrease of 4.44 per cent. The variation between this result and the
preceding one has a simple explanation. About 30 per cent, of the
families engaged in agriculture carry on their farming as an accessory
business. Teachers, priests and mechanics may all have patches of
land. On the other hand, a small number of people have no land.
Therefore, the percentage of the rural population is only slightly
higher than that of the families engaged in agriculture. In 1918 there
were 5,476,784 farming families (to 10,460,440 total families or 52.3
per cent.), and if we multiply by 5-1/3--the average number of persons
per family in Japan is 5.317 (1918)--to find the population dependent
on agriculture, the number is 29,209,514. The total population of
Japan in 1918 was 55,667,711. The Department of Agriculture has stated
that on the basis of the census of 1918 the number of persons in
households engage