Kobe Rural Startup Program
Kobe, Japan · Operator: 神戸市(経済観光局 農政部)/プラットフォームチーム
Overview
A roughly six-month intensive program focused on starting businesses and livelihoods in the rural districts of Kobe's Kita and Nishi wards. In areas facing depopulation and vacant houses, it aims to create a new rural culture unique to Kobe, where a big city sits compactly beside the countryside, training people through lectures and fieldwork on using vacant houses and satoyama resources.
Citizen participation
Residents and prospective movers learn theory and know-how of food, farming and environmental businesses through lectures on using vacant houses and satoyama resources plus on-site fieldwork, aiming to start businesses or relocate in Kobe's rural areas.
Operating model
Run as a Kobe City agricultural-policy program; farmers, university researchers, relocation coordinators and designers form a platform team supporting rural startups and livelihoods.
Impact
It develops urban residents into rural entrepreneurs and successors, helping revitalize and repopulate Kobe's rural areas.
Crops
- vegetables
- rural produce
Scale
神戸市北区・西区の農村地域を対象に、月1回土日を基本とする約6か月間の集中プログラム
Sources(2)
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
Related cases
Kyomaru-en (Universal Agriculture Farm)
JPHamamatsu, Japan
Kyomaru-en in Hamamatsu is a pioneer of agriculture-welfare collaboration, employing people with disabilities since 1996. Under its 'universal agriculture' approach it designs tasks around each worker's abilities, building a farm business where anyone can work regardless of disability.
agrijournal.jp+1
Micro Farmers School Kobe
JPKobe, Japan
A farming school launched in 2020 within EAT LOCAL KOBE's urban-farming work. Based in the Kamiatago district of Kobe's Kita ward, it teaches residents who want farming as a livelihood—not just self-sufficiency—through hands-on training by local farmers, aiming to nurture Kobe's distinctive part-time micro farmers.
eatlocalkobe.org+1
Rice and Miso (EAT LOCAL KOBE)
JPKobe, Japan
A pillar of EAT LOCAL KOBE that communicates the possibilities of rice and miso and a new rural future. Run by the Ryokushosha cooperative, it grows rice without agrochemicals and makes miso from its own soybeans and rice, reframing the value of rice and miso that Japanese people are forgetting.
eatlocalkobe.org+1
Sansan Yamashiro Employment Support Workshop
JPKyotanabe, Kyoto, Japan
A Kyotanabe employment-support workshop operating since 2011 that grows regional specialties (Uji tea, Tanabe eggplant, Kyoto taro) and became one of the first Noufuku JAS certified businesses in 2019.
maff.go.jp+1