It is accurate because I got it from the horses mouth…Farmers who grew up in Miaoli during Japanese occupation of Taiwan
From reports I read they were taking up to HALF the harvest from farmers. They would beat the farmers if they suspected they were hiding food.
Many simply couldn’t eat rice and just ate sweet potato instead.
I also saw how they seized all the land for massive sugar cane farms all over Taiwan .
The farmers had to pay half to the land owners if that’s what they mean.
Your description could fit what farmers would say about paying farm rent instead of as a tax to the Japanese. Unless you are talking about WW2, as I said that’s a whole different story, which the KMT did as well when they were fighting the civil war.
Japanese changed the tax system to focus on small land holders early on. They had taxes on paddy fields specifically too.
Cash and food grab from Taiwan and they really didn’t give a shit about tenant farmers.
Some educated urban Taiwanese look fondly st that time many who were educated in Japan, but they were a small elite class.
During WW2, the prefecture declared rice production to be under government control in 1940. Starting from 1944, food was rationed. So yeah, the Japanese government would be coming for your rice. However, as you noticed, since Japan surrendered in 1945, the war time ration was short lived in Taiwan.
Article on this issue from Academia Historica
https://www.drnh.gov.tw/app/index.php?Action=downloadfile&file=WW05dmF5ODBNaTl3ZEdKZk1qQXhPVjgwTURJek1EYzVYelV3TnpRMExuQmtaZz09&fname=0054RPA0ICLKVXMPVSTWWW14ZSB4UW35PKFGTWMPXXFDNLNL&usg=AOvVaw3m_VQu2Aowj19Dh3uGbqlA
In the article you linked to, it seems like Japanese prefecture did surveys to determine what the reasonable rent should be for the farmers based on the types of crops and size and condition of the land they rent. Whether or not the land owners comply and refrain from taking half is another matter.
After comparing these reports with the results of their own surveys, the authorities then decided on the legal land rent for each field.
And then
In November 1904, the government began to tax paddies, fields, fish-ponds, and forest areas, and meanwhile it shifted land ownership and tax obligations from “large land-holders” to “small land-holders.”
Absolutely nothing about taking food from the farmers themselves. If anything the prefecture tried to set a reasonable field rent for farmers while heavily taxing the unproductive middlemen.
I imagine the heavy tax back in 1904 was due to the fact that Nogi Maresuke was having a hard time making money, because by the 1930s, when Taiwan was really making a killing agriculturally, the land tax was around 24%.
Here’s a thought: No one-child policy means that China would have what, twice the population as in our timeline? It would be more like India.
I also heard this from an old KMT soldier who evacuated here at the end of the war. While he may have favored the KMT, he wasn’t contradicted by any of the older Taiwanese from the country (not sure which regions). None of them were very old during the pre-war period and probably didn’t know if there was a change.
Anyway, the topic isn’t how cool did Taiwanese farmers think the KMT were, so this is probably a topic for another thread. More on topic:
The CCP encouraged having many children at first. The one-child policy was to bring it back under control. But yeah, there would be more people there. Also, the CCP’s ridiculous policy restricting internal migration could have led to cities becoming much larger, but possibly also more large cities.
Average daily mean temperatures:
Sanya 25.8
Honolulu 25.4
Kaoshiung 25.1
Haikou 24.2
Taipei 23
Conclusion: Hainan is worthier of the title, climatically. Industry and tourism tend not to go together so much, so in your timeline you would probably also see tourists prefer Hainan.
I literally love that image! 
I just found this.