Let's Happy the Rice

Oh the poor farmers in Japan. You think it's easy to go out into your tiny fields and plant rice? You try it! Nobody in Japan really wants to do it, so farming is left to the aged (average age 65!). Women especially are fleeing the countryside in droves. What happens is that the menfolk – what few young ones are left – then cannot find a marriage partner. Many are "reduced" to ordering brides from abroad, bringing a foreign woman who usually cannot speak any Japanese into the isolation and decline of their farming village.
To top this all off, rice production across the country is dropping and there is pressure from abroad for Japan to open its rice market to imports. Japanese pay more than 10 times what Americans pay for rice, but they still believe that rice cultivation is an important aspect of Japanese culture that needs to be preserved. The Japan Agricultural Cooperative (slogan: Diapers are available in adult sizes at our stores) helps to promote this inefficiency by using its powerful political weight to stop rice imports.
What can be done about this problem?
Move the farmers! Yes, the Japanese government should undertake a massive relocation program for the nation's farmers. Since rural areas are becoming depopulated anyway, the government would simply be speeding up the process and making the transition easier.
But where should they be moved to?
The answer is simple. Move everyone involved in farming to the cities and along major transportation routes where they can plant on small plots of empty land or rooftops of buildings and thus be visible to the urban population. The urban residents, more than 65% and growing, will feel better about the traditions of rice cultivation being upheld. The farmers could even be decked out in traditional "farmer wear" and do all their work by hand (saving on all that imported fuel that powers Japanese agriculture today), giving a more picturesque aspect to their bucolic revival. Traditional thatch roofed houses could be rebuilt in these areas, filling the nation's transportation corridors with a nostalgic, rural Japan theme park!
Since the amount of land cultivated for rice will be dramatically reduced, the shortfall in production will have to be covered by imports. This would be a win-win situation for everyone. Japanese farmers would be able to keep up their timeless activities in a traditional way, but since they would be in or near urban areas, more women would stick around at home and men would not have so much trouble finding brides. In addition, Japan would be able to respond positively to foreign pressure to open its market for imports. The price of rice would fall and the Japanese salaryman would be able to eat his much cheaper, convenience store box lunch on the train while looking out over the classic scenes of Japanese life, a view that hasn't been seen in a century or more! How much better can it get?