In Japan, the 1990s began with the collapse of the bubble economy.^*1 The problems of a decreasing birthrate and aging population also became more apparent, and despite the approach of a new century, for Japan, the future was uncertain. The aging population was having a huge impact on the agricultural industry, too. Ever since Japan’s period of high economic growth^*2 in the 1960s, the youth had continued to move out of rural areas into the cities. The age of the farming population increased, and to add to this issue, there was a significant lack of new workers or successors. In 1990, the average age of agriculture workers was already 57,^*3 and the agricultural industry in Japan was considered an aging industry. Furthermore, the work is heavy, so the shortage of workers and successors became serious, and the number of people quitting agriculture increased. The overall production capacity of agriculture began to fall, year by year. With this aging trend, Japanese agriculture stands poised to fall into a turbulent era, beset with worries about future food supply and agriculture.

Since Kubota began development and sales of cultivator in 1947, we have listened closely to farmers based on our consistent local needs-based approach, and steadily developed a variety of agricultural machines such as combine harvesters and rice transplanters. By compensating for the worker shortages in agricultural villages, we have contributed to the development of agriculture, the stable supply of food, and the daily lives of farmers, and, as a result, to the development of cities and the economy. However, for aging farmers to continue agriculture as they have thus far, they needed agricultural machinery with higher added value, such as unprecedented ease of work, comfort, ease of operation, and visibility. Kubota hastened to develop agricultural machinery to respond to the troubles of aging farmers.