Tamezo Nara looked dejected as he puffed a cigarette and wondered aloud whether he was "going to be the last farmer."
The 67-year-old is the only farmer who plans to grow rice this year in the village of Minmaya, on the northern tip of the Tsugaru Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture.
Minmaya (pop. 2,700) is not alone in losing farming households. The farming population in Japan totaled 26.59 million in 1970. The number has decreased by around 10 percent every five years to 13.46 million in 2000.
The agricultural industry is in crisis because 28.6 percent of farmers are aged 65 years or older.