The Pal System Consumers Cooperative Union has released the results of its questionnaire survey, "Survey of Students Interested in Agriculture 2013. In the process of developing an interest in agriculture, the students were exposed to "The! DASH! DASH!", "Silver Spoon", "Farm Story" and other TV programs, comic books and video games.


TV programs were the most influential factor in developing an interest in agriculture - Anime and manga are also becoming increasingly influential.

When students were asked what influenced them to become interested in agriculture (multiple answers possible), the most common answer was "TV programs" (37.6%). This was followed by "actual experience" (36.4%), "classes at school" (27.7%), and "parents" (24.4%).


Compared to the results of the May 2012 survey, "anime/manga" had the greatest increase in influence. The number of students who answered that they were influenced by "anime/manga" increased by 3.9 points from 12.2% in the 2012 survey to 16.1%, indicating that the number of students who are interested in agriculture through the experience of watching anime/manga is on the rise.

The TV programs that have influenced me are "The! DASH! DASH!", "Silver Spoon" for anime and manga, and "Farm Story" for video games.

When the 376 students who answered that they became interested in agriculture through TV programs were asked the names of the programs that had influenced them, "The! DASH! was the most popular, with 75 responses. DASH!" was the most popular, with 75 responses, followed by "Manten☆Aozora Restaurant" (14) and "Masahiro Nakai no Friday no Sumatachi He (Hitori Kyouiku)" (8).

When the 161 students who were interested in anime and manga were asked the names of the works that had influenced them, "Silver Spoon" was the most popular, with 71 responses. This was followed by "Moyashimon" (37) and "Peasant Lords" (4).

Among the 99 students who became interested through games, "Harvest Moon" was the most influential work, with 57 responses. This was followed by "Animal Crossing series" (5 responses) and "Farming Hockolina" (3 responses).


Compared to the survey conducted in 2012, there was no significant change in the names of the programs and works appearing in the ranking, indicating that these works maintain stable popularity and influence among students interested in agriculture.

In addition to the above, the survey also asked students about their "intention to enter farming among students who are interested in farming" and "Will your intention to enter farming be affected by Japan's participation in the TPP? and "Will your farming intentions be affected by Japan's participation in the TPP? For more details on these survey items, please refer to the PDF file published by the company.

The survey was conducted by Mobile Research (Internet research using cell phones) over a period of seven days from May 22 to 28, 2013. The target audience was 1,000 students between the ages of 15 and 22 who were interested in jobs and occupations related to agriculture and related industries.