Solution to Japan's Jobless Problem: Turn City Workers Into Farmers

As someone who spent quite a bit of his youth farming: these people are doing it wrong.

Hoeing weeds in a field that hasn't even been disced or planted yet? Sorting beans by hand? Planting wheat by hand? Fertilizing by hand? Digging ditches by hand?

That's some seriously medieval stuff. I'm sure it's traditional, etc, but it's not efficient, and it doesn't scale to large populations. I don't even want to think about what they aren't doing regarding soil chemistry, pest control, etc.

Okay this isn't as bad as I first thought from the title. I was thinking USSR style where the government forced more workers into farming than using technology.

This looks like the Japanese government is trying to protect its agriculture industry, which a complete collapse of agriculture can be dangerous for a country. The USA has energy dependency, would you really want food dependency?

I believe Japan has some serious tariffs on food, thus allowing small scale farming to exist.