Refers to the agricultural system where a farmer cultivates land owned by a landlord and pays rent, often in kind.
Before the war, tenant farming was widely practiced in Japan.
Tenant farmers paid a portion of their harvest to the landlord.
Compound of 小作 (こさく, 'tenant farming') and 農 (のう, 'agriculture'). The term became common in the context of pre-war Japanese agrarian structure.