Long-term Trend of Land Ownership in Modern Korea: A Case Study on Hojeo-myeon, Wonju City

This article shows the trends of landownership during 1915-1977 in Hojeo Myun, Wonju City. We can divide this time span with three periods, the expansion period of colonial landlord system(1915-1942), the dissolution period of colonial landlord system and formation of landed farmer system(1943-1964), and period of mobilizing land(1965-1977). From the early 1940s to Korean war, many arable lands transformed to forest. it shows that the land productivity shrank during this time. The Gini coefficient increased by the early 1940s, and decrease by the late 1960s and increase again after then. The average area of landowner have decreasing trends consistently.