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Vacant lotActiveSince 2025

Potager Chayama (Shimonoseki national-land share farm)

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan · Operator: 株式会社ARCH(下関市・中国財務局との連携)

Overview

ARCH turns national land on Shimonoseki’s sloping dense streets into a share farm—cutting state upkeep on hard-to-sell plots while creating food-education and exchange near the station. A regional spread of Sakanoen-style national-land interim gardening.

Citizen participation

Residents use the share farm; planting workshops and exchange with neighbours and students follow. Inspired by Nagasaki’s Sakanoen, it uses beginner-friendly methods.

Operating model

Idle national land (escheated without heirs) entrusted via finance office → city → local firm ARCH; the community takes mowing/care while farming. Reported as Japan’s second national-land share farm after Nagasaki’s Sakanoen.

Impact

Implements national-land × city × local-business entrustment in western Japan, turning ‘worthless’ plots into community space.

Land tenure

Management entrustmentInterim use

Free entrustment of national land via the city to a local firm; interim community use of hard-to-sell plots

Crops

  • vegetables

Scale

60 m²下関駅北東約500m、茶山・竹崎の斜面住宅地内の国有地(約60㎡)。車が入れない路地に面する

In the media(2)

Sources(2)

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Potager Chayama (Shimonoseki national-land share farm) — Urban Farm DB