Comment on the B. de los Reyes Paper.

The article comments on the paper "Can Land Reform Succeed?," by B. de los Reyes. The activities of peasant organizations at this period also accelerated the progress of land reform Moreover, social confusion and widespread disturbances in the traditional value one nations of Japanese society also helped to minimize any counterblow by the landed class Most distinctive of the Japanese case, however, is the fact that expropriation and redistribution did not result in a heavy burden for either the government or the newly-created owner farmers. Except in those socialist countries which simply confiscate private property without compensation to its former owner, paying for expropriated land is the most serious hindrance to the implementation of land reform In the case of Japan, though the transfer of land was compensated for, the tremendous monetary inflation experienced in the late 1940s and early 1950s made the payments asked of new owners and the land bond issued by the government relatively light obligations. Under these conditions the land was rather confiscated than expropriated. In the late 1960s, in fact, the government made amends by appropriating additional compensation to the ex-landowners.