149 results
JPTokyo, Japan
A citizen project keeping bees on Ginza rooftops to make urban green networks visible. Linked to rooftop gardens and local food culture, it helped spark urban beekeeping across Japan.
gin-pachi.jp
JPTokyo, Japan
An indoor farm created by staffing company Pasona inside its Otemachi headquarters, with rice paddies in the lobby and tomatoes in meeting rooms, pioneering the fusion of office and farm.
en.japantravel.com+1
JPTokyo, Japan
Operated by AgriMedia, Share Batake is one of Japan's largest networks of supported allotment gardens, letting beginners grow vegetables hands-free while also putting underused farmland to use.
agrimedia.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A station-front garden built on artificial ground over buried Odakyu rail tracks, offering 300+ plots across about 5,000 m2 as an accessible urban allotment for beginners.
agris-seijo.jp+1
JPFukuoka, Japan
A bag-type home composter from Fukuoka-based Local Food Cycling, whose founder Yuiko Taira has promoted kitchen-waste composting for over 20 years, linking food-loss reduction and local soil-building through a 'nutrient cycle within a 2 km radius'.
lfc-compost.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
Japan's first 'experience farm', opened in Nerima in 1996, where a farmer leads instruction. Unlike simple allotments, it combines high-quality growing experience with preservation of urban farmland, and became a model copied nationwide.
city.nerima.tokyo.jp+1
JPKamakura, Japan
A community-composting pilot launched in Kamakura's Zaimokuza district in 2023, where residents bring food scraps to a worm composter built from scrap wood, generating neighbourly exchange and resource circulation through composting.
prtimes.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
Opened in 2022 atop Mitsubishi Estate's Otemachi Building, this sharing-type community farm invites anyone to take part, growing vegetables collectively under a concept of creating new urban 'commons'.
prtimes.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
An urban-farming NPO that began on a Shibuya rooftop, building farms and rice paddies on rooftops and urban gaps around Harajuku, Shibuya and Ebisu so that citizens can cultivate together and turn Tokyo into an 'edible forest'.
urbanfarmers.club+1
JPKyoto, Japan
Founded in 2007 by Kazuma Nishitsuji, MyFarm rehabilitates abandoned farmland across Japan into accessible experience farms for city dwellers, under the philosophy of a 'grow-your-own, eat-your-own society'.
myfarm.co.jp+1
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
JPAshikaga, Japan
Begun in 1958 when a teacher and pupils with special needs cleared a steep hillside in Ashikaga, it led to the founding of Kokoromi Gakuen in 1969. Grapes grown by residents with intellectual disabilities yield Japanese wines served even at international summits.
ja.wikipedia.org+1
JPTachikawa, Japan
A network of social farms run by Es-Pool Plus, sited in urban areas such as Tachikawa, Itabashi and Yokohama. Companies directly employ people with disabilities to do farm work, and the scheme has grown to more than 60 sites nationwide.
plus.spool.co.jp+1
JPTama, Japan
In 2014 Aiwa Elementary in Tama became Japan's first Edible Schoolyard, modeled on Alice Waters' Berkeley program. The school garden and kitchen serve as 'living classrooms' where children learn through all five senses, from sowing to harvest, cooking and eating, as a formal subject. Pupils experience nutrient cycles, the interconnection of life and ties to their community.
edibleschoolyard-japan.org+2
JPKoto, Tokyo, Japan
A licensed Koto-ward nursery in Tokyo built a full rooftop vegetable garden on its sunny roof in autumn 2019. Moving up from ground-floor planter boxes, children experience food education by sowing, observing, harvesting and cooking. MyFarm runs the monthly garden lessons, making it an urban model for pre-school children learning the link between farming and food.
myfarm.co.jp+1
JPNationwide, Japan
A nationwide effort based on MAFF's case collection of food education advanced by children's cafeterias working with communities and gardens. Local cafeterias link to plots, harvest experiences and nearby farmers so children grow, harvest, cook and eat together. It connects the food cycle, local production-consumption and food-loss reduction with creating safe places for children.
maff.go.jp+1
JPFukuoka, Japan
A Fukuoka-based citizen group that has researched and spread the 'cardboard-box compost' method—decomposing kitchen waste using only microbes—for over two decades, turning household food scraps into compost within the neighborhood to build a 2-km-radius nutrient cycle.
jun-namaken.com+2
JPTokyo, Japan
A community-compost project hubbed at an Omotesando food court where residents within a 2-km radius bring household food scraps to compost together; the finished compost and vegetable-growing foster 'neighborly ties starting from soil' in central Tokyo.
corp.4nature.co.jp+2
JPTokyo, Japan
A public-private food cycle in central Tokyo where Taito Ward, the Daimaru Matsuzakaya department store, and Local Food Cycling partner to compost household food scraps and grow vegetables at the Matsuzakaya Ueno rooftop garden.
matsuzakaya.co.jp+2
JPTokyo, Japan
A membership rental garden opened in 2009 on the rooftop of the Atre Ebisu station building directly connected to JR Ebisu Station. A rooftop-greening company converted an underused downtown rooftop into a come-empty-handed kitchen garden for citizens, pioneering rooftop-garden rollouts across Japan.
shibukei.com+1
JPOsaka, Japan
Launched Osaka's first urban beekeeping on the rooftop of the Yanmar Building in Umeda's Chayamachi district in March 2010. Rather than honey itself, its aim is promoting local greening through bee pollination and providing food and environmental education. It has expanded with an experience-based apiary in Hattori Ryokuchi park.
u-mitsubachi.com+1
JPFukuoka, Japan
A Fukuoka (Hakata) based NPO devoted to urban beekeeping and public outreach about honeybees. Under the motto that a town where bees fly is a good town, it keeps bees on building rooftops and other sites, drawing attention to the city's vanishing nature and linking people with nature and their community.
seibutsutayousei.city.fukuoka.lg.jp+1
JPNagoya, Japan
An urban-beekeeping NPO based in Naka-ku, Nagoya, formed in the wake of the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity COP10 held in Nagoya. It keeps bees on a rooftop in the Nishiki district to raise interest in biodiversity and the environment through downtown beekeeping.
maruhachi-project.com+1
JPChuo, Tokyo, Japan
Opened in spring 2022 on a building rooftop in Tokyo's Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, this urban community garden grows about 200 species of edible plants. Run by Heiwa Real Estate with Edible Schoolyard Japan as an 'edible schoolyard' in the city, it hosts food education for the nearby Sakamoto Elementary School and community exchange, and has won green-city awards.
edibleschoolyard-japan.org+1
JPChuo, Tokyo, Japan
Following its work at Aiwa Elementary in Tama, Edible Schoolyard Japan extended edible education to central Tokyo, where pupils of Chuo Ward's Sakamoto Elementary School take edible lessons linked to the nearby Edible KAYABAEN rooftop garden. It brings garden-based food education, from seed to table, into an inner-city public elementary school.
ediblekayabaen.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
The farmers market at the heart of EAT LOCAL KOBE, the local-food platform Kobe City launched in 2015. Held in the public space of Higashi Yuenchi park south of City Hall, it began as an experiment to build a small local food cycle that brings producers and eaters closer, and has since grown into a permanent FARMSTAND shop and the wider Gastropolis Kobe vision.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
A permanent shop that lets people experience the weekly EAT LOCAL KOBE Farmers Market every day. Open daily in Kobe's Kitanozaka, it sells local agricultural and marine products, processed goods, drinks and bread, with a cafe, serving as a standing hub for connecting producers and consumers.
eatlocalkobe.org+1
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
JPKobe, Japan
Kobe's urban-farming push covers gardens in downtown parks, vacant lots and rooftops where residents grow and harvest their own food. Beyond raising interest in agriculture, it builds community and tackles city issues such as putting vacant land and houses to use, with the city's Machi no Noen Navi guiding people to the spots.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
An allotment garden opened in August 2022 on temporarily used development land on Port Island (Phase 2). On a man-made island known for advanced medical facilities, it offers beginner plots, level-up plots and welfare plots where people can grow vegetables empty-handed, barbecue and join harvest events.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
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
JPKobe, Japan
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.
kobenoson.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
A Kobe City effort in the rural Kita and Nishi wards to promote urban-rural exchange and rural settlement. In countryside only about 30 minutes from the city center, rural-settlement coordinators bridge visitors to residency amid vacant-house and abandoned-farmland challenges, while residents, students and universities work on satoyama biodiversity conservation and terraced-field restoration.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPHino, Japan
A community garden in Hino City, Tokyo, started by citizens who believe 'kitchen waste is a treasure.' It collects and composts the kitchen waste of around 200 households and grows vegetables and flowers pesticide-free as a food-cycle garden. Naomi Shimpo studied its management and governance in detail in her 2021 and 2024 papers.
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+3
JPNerima, Tokyo, Japan
Nerima created Japan's first agricultural experience farm in 1996 and is a pioneer of urban agriculture. The 'Nerima model', in which farmers act as instructors for residents, has spread nationwide, with over a dozen farms still operating in the ward. It is a leading model for using urban farmland as a place of learning and community exchange.
city.nerima.tokyo.jp+1
JPNerima, Tokyo, Japan
Using Tokyo's Agricultural Landscape Conservation District system, Nerima designated the Takamatsu (2015) and Minami-Oizumi (2019) districts. It carries dwindling urban farmland forward as open space and protects the agricultural landscape community-wide — a leading case of urban farmland conservation.
city.nerima.tokyo.jp+1
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Setagaya's agriculture-welfare programme launched in 2021. Through farm work on local farmland it promotes employment and higher earnings for people with disabilities while conserving farmland and fostering disability understanding. Centred on the 'Setasora' hub farm, it is a public-private urban welfare farm.
city.setagaya.lg.jp+1
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Setagaya provides a range of official ways for residents to engage with urban farming: Family Allotments (~10 sqm fully equipped plots), harvest and planting experiences at Fureai farms, a JA farmers market for 'Setagaya-sodachi' produce, and a map of about 110 farm stands.
city.setagaya.lg.jp+1
JPYokohama, Japan
Under its Midori-Up Plan, Yokohama develops citizen farms and harvest-experience farms and, since 2014, runs the 'Yokohama Farm Expedition' agri-tour. It officially expands opportunities for residents to engage with farming while conserving farmland that remains in the large city.
city.yokohama.lg.jp+1
JPNagoya, Japan
The Nagoya Agricultural Center (nicknamed 'dela Farm'), an agricultural park opened in 1965 and fully renovated in 2024, serves as a hub where residents deepen their understanding of farming through hands-on growing at its Citizen Garden and other municipal farms across the city.
city.nagoya.jp+1
JPFukuoka, Japan
Fukuoka develops municipal 'refresh' farms and instructor-led experience farms to support residents' farming activity for soil contact, health, food education and social interaction, while officially running new-farmer programmes like Agri-Challenge — an urban-agriculture policy of a major Kyushu city.
city.fukuoka.lg.jp+1
JPKokubunji, Tokyo, Japan
Kokubunji launched farm-support volunteering in 1996 and certifies residents who learn cultivation year-round at its Citizen Agriculture College, introducing them to local farmers. About 80 volunteers are now active, and the city also supports six experience farms — a workforce-building urban-agriculture policy.
city.kokubunji.tokyo.jp+1
JPKawasaki, Japan
Kawasaki maintains an Urban Agriculture Promotion Center and develops varied farm-contact venues — citizen farms, instructor-led experience farms, community-exchange farms and pick-your-own farms. Through programmes like Asao green tourism it uses surviving urban farmland as a place of exchange and learning.
city.kawasaki.jp+1
JPSaitama, Japan
Saitama operates several municipal community farms, including recreation gardens and the Citizens' Forest Community Farm, with instructor-supported plots, giving residents farm experience, community exchange and nature learning — a participatory urban-agriculture policy harnessing a designated city's greenery and farmland.
city.saitama.lg.jp+1
JPSuginami, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo's first municipally run agriculture-welfare farm, opened April 2021 in Igusa, Suginami, on a barrier-free 3,200 m2 site giving people with disabilities and seniors a place to engage in farming.
city.suginami.tokyo.jp+1
JPHadano, Kanagawa, Japan
Hadano's first experience-type farm, opened April 2018 with support from JA Hadano and the city's urban-farmland conservation council, using spring water from a nationally designated source and featuring a biotope pond.
jacom.or.jp+1
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
JPTokyo, Japan
A new-farmer network coordinated by the Tokyo Agricultural Council that used the 2018 lease facilitation law to achieve Japan's first new entry into farming via leased productive greenland in 2019.
tosinouti.or.jp+1
JPMatsukawa, Nagano, Japan
A farming company in Matsukawa, Nagano producing apples and apple juice; one of the first four businesses certified under Noufuku JAS in November 2019, pioneering agriculture-welfare in an orchard region.
maff.go.jp
JPNishitokyo / Higashikurume, Tokyo, Japan
An area-management organization created alongside the redevelopment of the large Hibarigaoka Danchi spanning Nishitokyo and Higashikurume, Tokyo. Its hub 'Hibari Terrace 118', a renovated former housing block, includes a community garden and lawn plaza where residents connect through planting, harvesting and seasonal events.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPHino, Tokyo, Japan
One of UR's danchi-regeneration projects reusing the blocks of the former Tamadaira Danchi (1958) in Hino, Tokyo. With the ~45-plot 'Hidamari Farm', a 'Colony Garden' inspired by Danish kolonihave, and a fruit-bearing yard, it is garden-equipped rental housing where residents and locals connect through growing food.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPZama, Kanagawa, Japan
A 1960s Odakyu company-housing complex by Zama station, regenerated in 2015 into a mix of rentals, municipal housing and a childcare-support center. Its central plaza holds the guidance-supported 'Hatamusubi' rental garden and a dog run, aiming to be housing open to the community that links people, nature and town.
odakyu-fudosan.co.jp+2
JPYokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
A flagship of UR's 'Future of Danchi' project at Yokodai Chuo Danchi in Isogo Ward, Yokohama. Directed by architect Kengo Kuma and creative director Kashiwa Sato, it renewed facades, plazas, small parks and the meeting hall, regenerating outdoor space and daily life through resident workshops (the Kamome Project), a community cafe and planting and markets.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPKashiwa, Chiba, Japan
The 'Kashiwa Project', launched in 2009 by Kashiwa City, the University of Tokyo's Institute of Gerontology and UR at Toyoshikidai Danchi (over 40% elderly) in Chiba. Using rooftop farms, plant-cultivation units and nearby farmland in the rebuilt complex, it embeds agriculture as 'ikigai' employment for seniors, advancing alongside community-based integrated care.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPSakai, Osaka, Japan
At the public-corporation rental complex Chayamadai Danchi in Senboku New Town, Sakai, Osaka, the Osaka Prefectural Housing Supply Corporation runs the 'Hibikiau Danchi Life' regeneration project. In an aging complex with rising vacancies, it revives residents' lives and community through a DIY workshop, library, deli, mobile vegetable sales and lemon cultivation in vacant spaces.
danchi-renovation.com+2
JPMunakata, Fukuoka, Japan
The 'Satozukuri 48' community-cocreation project regenerated the former Block 48 of Hinosato Danchi (1971, once Kyushu's largest) in Munakata, Fukuoka, into the mixed hub 'Hinosato 48' with a nursery, DIY workshop and an on-site brewery in 2021; the on-site 'Hinosato Farm' lets multiple generations interact through farming and food.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPMinato, Tokyo, Japan
A rooftop paddy and field in Mori Building's Roppongi Hills where, for over 20 years, residents and workers and their children have planted and harvested rice. A pioneering case embedding a Japanese agricultural landscape and community activity within a high-rise mixed-use development.
mori.co.jp+2
JPMinato, Tokyo, Japan
An orchard, edible garden and urban beekeeping programme within the large green spaces of Azabudai Hills (opened 2023). An ~200 sqm orchard grows 11 fruit species plus herbs and edible plants; children's honey harvests and greening workshops connect residents, workers and citizens to food and farming in the city centre.
azabudai-hills.com+2
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
A vegetable plaza in the rooftop Roof Garden of Tokyu's Futako-Tamagawa Rise redevelopment, where local schoolchildren and kindergarteners grow vegetables pesticide-free from sowing to harvest. A community-participation food-education garden built into a station-front redevelopment.
nikotama.keizai.biz+1
JPHigashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan
An agriculture-experience project Tokyu Land opened in May 2025 on ~800 sqm of farmland in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, for residents of its BRANZ condominiums. With shared and individual plots covering sowing to harvest, cooking and networking, it links city residents to a rural community and nature — a new model of a developer extending a condominium farming community onto rural farmland.
tokyu-land.co.jp+2
JPChiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
An urban-beekeeping project by Mitsubishi Estate and the Ecozzeria Association on rooftops in the Otemachi-Marunouchi district. Area workers join beekeeping, honey harvesting and forage planting, with the honey circulating back into the district — a worker-participation model of rooftop food/biodiversity town-making.
ecozzeria.jp+2
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
In 2020 Mitsui Fudosan Residential launched, via its Mitsui no Sumai LOOP membership service and with JA Setagaya-Meguro, an experience-farm and harvest-event program. On a roughly 6,000 sqm farm near Sakurajosui Station, members take part in actual farming from sowing to harvest; one winter-vegetable harvest event drew about 400 groups.
mitsuifudosan.co.jp+2
JPKashiwa, Chiba, Japan
An experience rental farm at Oak Village Kashiwanoha, near Kashiwanoha-campus Station inside Mitsui Fudosan's Kashiwanoha Smart City area. Citizens held 10 sqm plots on a garden-like ~6,000 sqm farm and grew vegetables organically. It was part of a 'food and farming' complex with a farm restaurant and BBQ, but has since closed.
gardenhotels.co.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
31VENTURES, Mitsui Fudosan's venture arm, ran a 2023 staff farming pilot using Share-batake, the rental farm of portfolio company Agrimedia. Group employees joined by open call and grew vegetables from sowing to harvest to test whether farming improves internal communication. The investment marked Mitsui adding 'farming-based town building' as a focus area.
31ventures.jp+2
JPKashiwa, Chiba, Japan
In Mitsui Fudosan's Kashiwanoha Smart City (Kashiwa, Chiba), resident-participatory town-building themed on food, farming and health is run with UDCK and Chiba University. Chiba University's environmental-health center returns plant-factory technology to residents' lives, generating new lifestyles and exchange through food and farming. The 'A-shi-ta' town health lab gathers a ~3,700-resident community, and resident-involved food/health pilots (e.g., the Meiji 'Yogurt for the City's Future' project) are conducted.
mitsuifudosan.co.jp+2
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
A membership-based urban experience farm launched by Nomura Real Estate with JA Setagaya-Meguro in November 2020 in Nakamachi, Setagaya. Over 2,000 sqm of member-owned productive green land is leased and divided into roughly 200 plots (3.6 sqm each) rented to residents and citizens. JA farmers and advisors support cultivation, and with seeds, seedlings, fertilizer and tools provided, even beginners can experience real farming from planting to harvest empty-handed. It aims to preserve shrinking urban farmland while fostering food education and community.
jacom.or.jp+3
JP京都市 / Kyoto, Japan
A rain garden built by Kyoto City at a road intersection using traditional garden-making techniques such as karesansui (dry landscape). It takes in road runoff through an inlet and temporarily stores and infiltrates it in a gravel bed (suhama) up to ~30 cm thick, simultaneously delivering flood mitigation, groundwater recharge, heat-island relief, water purification and landscaping—an iconic multifunctional green infrastructure case.
city.kyoto.lg.jp+1
JP東京都世田谷区 / Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
The corridor created by undergrounding the Odakyu line (Shimokita Senrogai) was regenerated as continuous green infrastructure of a rain-garden plaza, open meadow and planting strips. The municipal Shimokita Rain Garden Plaza is designed so people can cross on stepping stones even when water pools, delivering stormwater management, biodiversity and community. The citizen group Shimokita Engei-bu is deeply involved through planting, beekeeping and composting.
shimokitazawa.info+2
JPTokyo, Japan
A greened low-rise terrace of a Takeshiba office tower with a rice paddy, vegetable beds and beehives, run as corporate branding offering growing experiences to workers and local children.
tokyu-land.co.jp
JPTokyo, Japan
Urban beekeeping launched March 2016 on the rooftop of Mitsukoshi's Nihonbashi flagship — a clear example of a for-profit (department store) using city ecology and local food culture for its own branding.
mi-journey.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A participatory farm inside Yebisu Garden Place run jointly by the Urban Farmers Club NPO and Sapporo Real Estate — a corporate-partnership case turning a developer's complex into a citizen growing space.
workmill.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A project turning a 1,500㎡ plot of national land in Harajuku into a citizen-built organic community garden for under a year (opened April 2025) — a flagship case of interim use before redevelopment.
project.nikkeibp.co.jp+1
JPOsaka, Japan
A flagship case of turning a vacant lot in Suminoe, Osaka into a community farm as interim pre-development use (opened 2012), linking a landowner's idle property to creative placemaking.
greenz.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A temple parking lot in Sumida, Tokyo turned into a community farm by citizens through the priest's free loan (completed 2020) — a pattern of interim citizen greening of idle temple land.
note.com+1
JPOsaka, Japan
Japan's first allotment built on top of a sewage-treatment plant, opened by Osaka City in 2005 — a pioneering reuse of unused public-infrastructure airspace for citizen growing.
city.osaka.lg.jp
JPTokyo, Japan
Community gardens created under the JR Chuo Line viaduct by the NPO birth and JR East with citizen participation (since 2014) — a pattern for using railway viaduct gap space for citizen greening.
npo-birth.org
JPKawasaki, Japan
A Kawasaki planned-road site (~640㎡) used by the community as interim greenery/growing space until the road project advances — a pattern of citizens temporarily using a government project site.
mlit.go.jp
JPYokohama, Japan
An under-used Yokohama city soil-storage site turned into an interim community garden by a local group — a pattern of citizens temporarily using government under-used land.
mlit.go.jp
JPRikuzentakata, Japan
Gardens opened near temporary housing in Rikuzentakata after the 2011 disaster, with a prefectural hospital borrowing idle land free (since 2012) — using interim disaster-area land for elderly health and interaction.
reconstruction.go.jp
JPIshinomaki, Japan
In tsunami-hit Ogatsu (Ishinomaki), citizens turned disaster- and relocation-vacated land into a flower garden (opened 2012, relocated/reopened 2018) — a model of interim land use and community recovery.
gardenstory.jp+1
JPOsaka, Japan
The second Kitakagaya Minna no Uen site (2013), turning a former bathhouse and cultural housing of about 500 sqm into a larger community farm with ~33 plots and a kitchen studio.
minnanouen.jp+1
JPNeyagawa, Osaka, Japan
A roughly 300 sqm community farm on a former residence in Neyagawa, Osaka, with 30 individual 6 sqm plots and a kitchen salon in a renovated old house.
minnanouen.jp+1
JPKadoma, Osaka, Japan
A small community farm in a residential area facing Kadoma Shrine in Kadoma, Osaka, with toilets, a tool shed, and a shared herb garden free to harvest.
minnanouen.jp
JPKobe, Hyogo, Japan
A social-experiment site (opened 2022) on about 1,540 sqm of idle UR land in Minatogawa, Hyogo-ku, Kobe, regenerated as a rental farm plus open park space, with about one third as farm and the rest as park.
minnanouen.jp+2
JPKobe, Hyogo, Japan
A community farm in Zenshoji-cho, Suma-ku, Kobe, prepared to open in April 2025. It makes use of its natural setting between a hillside and the Zenshoji River, built DIY with local residents.
minnanouen.jp+1
JPOsaka, Japan
A Minna no Uen farm opened in July 2026 on a roughly 3,000 sqm former housing-complex site along the Yamato River in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka. Designed for beginners with paved paths so people can grow without stepping into the soil, limited to organic pesticide-free cultivation, and combining a community farm with a 'HIROBA' community space and an event area.
minnanouen.jp
JPToyonaka, Osaka, Japan
A Minna no Uen rental farm on vacant land in a quiet residential area of old townhouses in Shonai-sakaemachi, Toyonaka, Osaka. Known for its soft soil built up over half a year, plots start at 2 sqm and the site provides tools, rest facilities, water and parking.
minnanouen.jp
JPKobe, Hyogo, Japan
A co-creation farm on leased Kobe city land with a view of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Ougiden, Tarumi-ku, Kobe. Themed on 'play', it runs on three pillars—an organic rental farm, hands-on permaculture workshops, and a shared farming place—emphasizing organic-matter cycling and composting, jointly operated by Minna no Uen, Sorabatake and Hoshi no Aima.
minnanouen.jp
JPOsaka, Japan
A community farm in a residential neighborhood of Uesumiyoshi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, within walking distance of Sumiyoshi Taisha. It features a renovated row house, a well, and raised large-frame plots for comfortable cultivation.
minnanouen.jp
JPOsaka, Japan
An SDGs natural farm started in Osaka in 2021 that bridges 'awai' (the in-between) of farming and welfare. It partners with children's cafeterias in Tsurumi Ward and Moriguchi, donating its harvest to them, and links children's food education with the social participation of people facing employment barriers.
awai-farm.com+1
JPOsaka, Japan
An approximately 153-square-meter urban community garden opened beside Kuho Park in Osaka's Semba district in March 2025. Its name draws on 'coton' (cotton) and 'co + on', evoking Semba's textile-industry heritage and a wish for soft, cotton-like human connections.
coton-farm.com+2
JPKobe, Japan
A community garden that revived a vacant lot along the passageway of Kobe's roughly century-old Nada Central Market using handmade planters and lighting, turning land left derelict for over 20 years into organic rental plots and a lively market space.
ichiba-kobe.gr.jp+2
JPKobe, Japan
A Tanemaki LAB venture, centered on Kobe, that multiplies urban gardens on rooftops, idle land and in parks. With small empty-handed gardens and dispatched farmers, it spreads greening, community exchange and the joy of urban farming, and has expanded into local distribution such as the KOBE Veggie Bus.
tanemakilab.jp+2
JPKobe, Japan
A park-based community garden opened in April 2021 in a corner of Hirano Outlook Park in Kobe's Hyogo Ward. Growing citrus such as yuzu, figs and plums, its community plaza, garden and membership learning plaza create a place to engage with farming in the city.
eatlocalkobe.org+2
JPKobe, Japan
A membership rental garden attached to Noevir Stadium Kobe in Misaki Park. By embedding a growing space within an urban sports venue, it offers an example of urban farming where residents enjoy growing vegetables right beside the stadium.
noevir-stadium.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
A community garden at Zaimokucho Plaza along Kobe's Hyogo Canal. Using planters made from reused maritime wooden pallets, it grows strawberries, over ten kinds of herbs, figs, citrus, hops and radishes, creating a place for community farming and exchange on the canal bank.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPKadoma, Japan
One of Kansai's largest rooftop farms, opened in 2011 on the roof of the Bears commercial building in Kadoma, Osaka. With about 900 square meters and 100 plots themed on food education, it turned an urban rooftop into a place for community farming and exchange.
aozoranouen.com+1
JPOsaka, Japan
An empty-handed rooftop rental garden offered on near-station rooftops in central Osaka. Run by Toho Leo, it provides a place where even beginners can casually enjoy growing vegetables and building community in the city.
machinaka-saien.jp+1
JPAsahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan
Asahikawa City's citizen farm is a shared-plot community garden where, under the guidance of the natural-cultivation farm Minamina Farm, all participants work one field together. It lets residents learn pesticide- and chemical-fertilizer-free growing while mixing with one another.
city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp+1
JPSapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Furusato Farm in Sapporo's Minami Ward is an agricultural company that reclaimed long-abandoned farmland to grow vegetables on about 5 hectares. It runs food-education programs that invite local children to experience everything from growing to cooking and eating.
agripal.jp+1
JPHachinohe, Aomori, Japan
Hachinohe Citizen Farm is a publicly run allotment opened inside the city's Agricultural Management Promotion Center to deepen residents' understanding of farming through family experiences. It offers about 240 plots of 33 square meters, allocated by annual lottery.
city.hachinohe.aomori.jp
JPSendai, Miyagi, Japan
The Sendai Furusato-no-Mori project is a collaborative effort to rebuild eastern coastal Sendai's seaside forest, lost to the tsunami, with citizens' own hands. After planting that began in 2011 it has raised some 27,000 seedlings, shifting since 2021 to tree-nurturing and coastal nature learning.
sendai-furumori.org+1
JPHigashinaruse, Akita, Japan
Furin Co., a senior-care provider in Higashinaruse, Akita, has since 2013 run an agriculture-welfare program in which day-service users join planting and harvesting on nearby paddies. Users averaging 88 take meaningful roles in the work, and the harvested rice is sent to supporters.
higashinaruse.jp+1
JPYamagata, Yamagata, Japan
Yamagata City brings locally grown organic produce into school lunches and advances food education on organic farming and local consumption in its schools. In FY2023 it used organic potatoes in lunches at 35 elementary and 15 junior-high schools, aiming at sustainable agriculture.
city.yamagata-yamagata.lg.jp
JPIwaki, Fukushima, Japan
The Fukushima Organic Cotton Project grows native brown cotton organically on abandoned farmland in Iwaki, hit by post-nuclear-accident reputational harm, as a reconstruction effort. Over 5,000 volunteers and companies have taken part, aiming to give farmers new income and revive the area.
fukushima.organic+1
JPHiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
A network of more than 100 public citizen vegetable gardens across Hiroshima offering beginner-friendly plots plus cultivation classes and harvest festivals. The Mihari garden includes 'food-and-farming plots' where children's groups grow sweet potatoes, serving as a hands-on food-education setting.
haff.city.hiroshima.jp+1
JPOkayama, Okayama, Japan
An Okayama City citizen farm of about 7 hectares and 484 plots that serves as a place to connect with the soil and deepen understanding of farming and food. Year-round events such as the open-air market, farming experiences and a harvest festival make it a community hub linking users and locals.
city.okayama.jp+1
JPSanyo-Onoda, Yamaguchi, Japan
Sanyo-Onoda City's 'Fureai' citizen farm is a place where residents connect with nature and deepen their understanding of farming through growing vegetables and flowers. Its stated aims include purpose for older residents and experiential learning for children, enriching community life.
city.sanyo-onoda.lg.jp+1
JPYamaguchi, Yamaguchi, Japan
Yamaguchi Prefecture promotes agriculture-welfare collaboration, piloting contracted farm work in the model areas of Ube, Yamaguchi, Nagato and Shunan. By having disability-employment facilities take part in farming, it seeks both improved wages and purpose for participants and relief from local labor shortages and abandoned-farmland problems.
pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp
JPMatsue, Shimane, Japan
A project in Matsue's Oba/Sorayama district where the NPO Machizukuri Network Shimane and Shimane Prefecture jointly regenerate degraded farmland. Residents grow 'edible' fruiting trees and vegetables together, cutting CO2 and renewing local interest in farming and food while the restored land is used as citizen farms.
pref.shimane.lg.jp
JPKamiyama, Tokushima, Japan
A social enterprise in Kamiyama, Tokushima built on 'grow local, eat local,' passing the town's farming and food culture to the next generation. Through its canteen, bakery, processing and food education it creates a small 'grow–make–eat–connect' cycle that supports jobs, in-migration and community vitality.
jkri.or.jp+1
JPTakamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
A citizen garden inside the 5-hectare 'Konan Agream' farming-exchange facility near Takamatsu Airport, where residents rent about 50 m2 for roughly 10,000 yen a year. Through harvest and cooking experiences it lets people touch rural life and acts as a food-education and community hub.
agream.net+1
JPKochi, Kochi, Japan
A citizen farm opened by Kochi City in the Kagami and Tosayama areas where residents grow vegetables and flowers amid the nature of the Kagami River headwaters. It offers downtown residents a place to connect with mountainous-area farming and nature, supporting exchange and food education.
city.kochi.kochi.jp
JPMatsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Matsuyama's children's cafeterias and their 'Matsukone' network create safe places and community interaction for children through free or low-cost meals. Within MAFF's framework they advance food education tied to the community and to farming and harvest experiences.
matsukone.chu.jp+1
JPKitanakagusuku, Okinawa, Japan
An organic community garden run by Sunshine Farm in Kitanakagusuku, reviving the traditional Okinawan home plot 'atai-guwa' as an edible garden. Across fields, a paddy and a plaza, residents of all ages grow vegetables, rice and herbs and share the harvest.
note.com+1
JPNaha, Okinawa, Japan
A downtown rooftop rental garden launched in 2023 on the 10th floor of Naha's Palette Kumoji complex, said to be the prefecture's first. Run by Kumoji Urban Development with MyFarm, residents rent plots monthly and garden in the city with free tools and recycled-material soil.
otv.co.jp+1
JPOkinawa, Okinawa, Japan
A municipal citizens' farm in Okinawa City opened in 1994, offering about 1.9 ha and 102 plots to residents. Non-farmers grow vegetables and flowers there to deepen agricultural understanding, revitalise the community and nurture future growers.
city.okinawa.okinawa.jp
JPKumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
A Kumamoto City scheme designating qualifying citizen farms as 'Family Gardens,' places to enjoy soil and deepen appreciation of food and farming. Gardens are spread across the city's five wards, and residents without farmland can join on a rolling basis.
city.kumamoto.jp+1
JPKagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan
An about-30-ha urban agriculture centre opened by Kagoshima City in 1997, divided into training, citizens'-farm and interaction zones. Residents who rent plots in the citizens'-farm zone deepen agricultural understanding, health and exchange through workshops and fruit-harvest experiences.
city.kagoshima.lg.jp+1
JPKagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan
A 413,000-square-metre municipal agri-park in Kiire, Kagoshima. With experience plots, a stay-type citizens' farm and an environmental-learning building, this free-admission facility lets residents enjoy farming, food and learning about circular agriculture.
kankonogyo-park.jp+1
JPIsahaya, Nagasaki, Japan
An agriculture-welfare initiative by the social-welfare corporation Minamitaka Airinkai, based in Isahaya, Nagasaki, linking with farming on the Shimabara Peninsula. People with disabilities help with planting, harvesting and shipping, gaining confidence and purpose while supporting agriculture facing labour shortages.
airinkai.or.jp+1
JPNagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan
A group of municipal citizens' farms run by Nagasaki City to reuse abandoned farmland and deepen urban residents' understanding of agriculture. At the Hirayama, Mie and Takashima farms and Kinkai-Akamizu Fureai Farm, residents experience planting and harvesting, opened since fiscal 2000 under a family-garden method.
city.nagasaki.lg.jp+1
JPBeppu, Oita, Japan
A citizens' farm run by Beppu City where residents grow vegetables and flowers in the countryside overlooking Mt. Yufu. It recruits users as a place to deepen understanding of agriculture through farm work in nature and interaction with local residents not available downtown.
city.beppu.oita.jp
JPMiyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan
Tsukura Citizens' Farm, run by Miyazaki City, rents affordable plots of about 15 square metres to residents with on-site cultivation support. Beginners and families can enjoy growing vegetables and harvesting, tied to the city's food-education and local-production efforts.
city.miyazaki.miyazaki.jp+1
JPSaga, Saga, Japan
An initiative by Saga City introducing citizens' farms (fureai farms) opened by local farmers and individuals. At gardens such as Muraoka Honobono Farm and Tsunome Farm, residents grow vegetables to engage with nature and agriculture, deepening understanding and contact with nature.
city.saga.lg.jp+1
JPToyama, Toyama, Japan
A program Toyama City launched in 2013 to create community gardens in a corner of neighborhood parks and revitalize local community through vegetable harvesting. It now runs at seven sites, operated by resident park-care associations.
city.toyama.lg.jp+1
JPToyama, Toyama, Japan
An urban farm running beekeeping and growing of sweet potatoes and edamame on the Toyama Civic Plaza rooftop since 2018. It serves as a food-education and awareness space focused on pollinators and the urban environment.
siminplaza.co.jp
JPKanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
An NPO started by resident volunteers in Kanazawa's Shijima district that regenerates abandoned farmland and bamboo groves, opening 'Minna no Hatake' in March 2017. It fosters cross-generational exchange, a morning market, and bamboo-resource recycling.
minnanohatake.com+1
JPKanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
Kanazawa City's food-waste recycling loop that collects citizen-made compost at neighborhood points and uses it at community farms. It advances food-loss reduction and organic-resource circulation through citizen participation.
www4.city.kanazawa.lg.jp
JPNiigata, Niigata, Japan
Japan's first public educational farm, developed by Niigata City (opened 2014). Citizens and families experience growing, harvesting, livestock, and rice-flour pizza making to learn about food and farming.
city.niigata.lg.jp+1
JPYokkaichi, Mie, Japan
A municipal citizens' garden run by the Yokkaichi Agricultural Center, renting 15 sqm plots to residents. It also offers parent-child farming, agri-welfare, and food education with the school-lunch center.
city.yokkaichi.mie.jp+1
JPHokuto, Yamanashi, Japan
An NPO founded in 2021 and based in Hokuto, Yamanashi, working on agriculture, welfare, and education. It advances agri-welfare linking employment for welfare-service users with shipping support for small farms.
npo-taishi.jp
JPNara, Nara, Japan
Municipal rental farms in Nara's eastern Sakahara and Tawara districts where residents grow vegetables with support from local farming cooperatives. They deepen interest in farming and foster exchange between users and local farmers.
city.nara.lg.jp+1
JPMoriyama, Shiga, Japan
'Oishii Niwa,' run in Moriyama by NPO Aoi Biwako (focused on Lake Biwa conservation). Through home gardening, composting, and parent-child SDGs learning, citizens engage with food-farming and organic-resource cycling.
moriyama-ecopark.net+1
JPGifu, Gifu, Japan
Gifu City's elderly health gardens, run across the city for older residents' wellbeing and purpose, plus JA Gifu's Health Fureai Farm. Residents aged 60+ enjoy growing vegetables on rented plots.
city.gifu.lg.jp+1
JPFukui, Fukui, Japan
Ichijodani Asakura Mizunoeki, opened by Fukui City as a farming-experience facility in 2010. Through its experience farm and biotope, families and schoolchildren learn about food and farming via rice planting, vegetable growing, and nature observation.
city.fukui.lg.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A long-running movement reviving Tokyo's near-lost heirloom 'Edo-Tokyo vegetables' in city schools, a horticultural high school and allotments. Over nearly 30 years more than 50 varieties have been registered, linking heritage food culture and farming to the next generation via school lunches and food education.
tokyo-ja.or.jp+1
JPTokyo (Edogawa), Japan
In Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, said to be the birthplace of komatsuna greens, urban farmers grow the heritage crop on plots dotted through residential neighborhoods and deliver directly to 92 schools, passing local food culture and urban agriculture to children via synchronized school lunches and harvest events.
ja-tokyosmile.or.jp+1
JPKanazawa, Japan
Kanazawa's 15 certified 'Kaga vegetables' heirlooms are grown, harvested and cooked by schoolchildren in integrated-study programs and featured in food-education booklets and lunches, transmitting the city's heritage food culture and history to the next generation.
www4.city.kanazawa.lg.jp+1
JPOsaka, Japan
Osaka certifies 'Naniwa traditional vegetables'—heirlooms nearly lost to urbanization—and uses them in school gardens and lunches as 'living teaching material,' letting pupils taste and learn the food culture and farming nurtured by Osaka's historic 'kitchen of the nation.'
city.osaka.lg.jp+1
JPTokyo, 日本
Tokyo-based rooftop urban garden program utilizing multiple building rooftops to transform unused spaces into agricultural, educational, and community activity spaces.
sciencedirect.com
JPKobe (須磨区), Japan
A multi-generational community garden on the rooftop of the Suma Patio shopping centre in Suma Ward, Kobe. Rather than simply growing vegetables, it treats "eating" as a year-round, whole-cycle experience, with regular hands-on workshops. Weeds and plant residues from the rooftop beds and workshops are composted and returned to the garden's planters and to nearby fields, closing a small local resource loop.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (垂水区), Japan
An urban garden run by the incorporated association Tanemaki LAB. With the cooperation of Kobe International University High School, previously unused land inside the school grounds has been brought back into use as a place where local residents gather, work the soil and meet. It is framed not as a plot-rental service but as community-building linking "people to people" and "everyday life to nature", with workshops that let anyone experience the loop from household food scraps to compost, vegetables and the table.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (中央区), Japan
A citizen-participation community garden based in Ikutacho Park, near Shin-Kobe station, created as part of Kobe City's "Kobe Saien Project". Alongside vegetable growing it focuses on making sustainable living tangible — composting, resource cycling and soil building. The operators describe composting not as waste disposal but as "a small doorway into the cycle that connects people, neighbourhood and nature", aiming to start local cycling from curiosity and enjoyment rather than from environmental problems framed as difficult.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (兵庫区・長田区), Japan
A come-empty-handed rental garden run at two sites in Kobe — Kanda-cho in Hyogo Ward and Komagabayashi-cho in Nagata Ward — by Akisuke Nagata, a group that turns vacant houses and lots into neighbourhood assets. Its distinguishing feature is that vegetable waste and prunings are recycled into compost with a local type-B employment support workshop rather than incinerated, with the goal of getting people to use fully matured "craft compost", made entirely from local plant material and inputs, as a matter of course.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (兵庫区), Japan
A community complex created by renovating Minatoyama municipal primary school, closed in 2015, around the theme of "making nature and everyday life". An aquarium, an edible botanical garden, a herb shop, a brewery, a supported-employment facility, childcare and after-school care and welfare services sit side by side, cultivating a place where people, nature and neighbourhood connect. As a partner organisation of the Kobe Compost Project it sets out to work with users to find forms of cycling that are easy to sustain in daily life.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (北区), Japan
A community group based in Ogo-cho, Kita Ward, Kobe, that since 2019 has been clearing neglected bamboo groves and putting the bamboo to use. Left alone, bamboo encroaches on fields, degrades the landscape and shelters crop-raiding animals, so continuous cutting is needed to return the hills to open, managed satoyama. Under the motto "tasty and fun", bamboo and shoots are upcycled instead of discarded — into domestic menma, bamboo craft and the transmission of those skills, and fertiliser made from bamboo chips. Its bamboo-chip compost is used in the Kobe Compost Project's public workshops.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (長田区), Japan
A group based at a community garden in Mano, Nagata Ward, Kobe, where children and local residents learn hands-on how food, farming and the environment connect. Using a small garden inside a residential area, it runs a "sixth-industry" model covering not just growing and harvesting but processing and selling. Spent coffee grounds collected from local cafés are composted in a community composter and returned to the garden.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (須磨区), Japan
An open space on the edge of the Tainohata settlement in Suma Ward, Kobe, run by the workers' co-operative Hata, whose proposals for daily life include "a life that makes soil". Since the previous year it has run a cycling garden: vegetable scraps from its kitchen are broken down by microbes in the garden composter into soil, that soil goes back to the beds, the beds become habitat for a range of living things, and flowers and vegetables are harvested and eaten. It invites neighbours and users to compost at home too, using the compost themselves or bringing any surplus back to Hata, so the cycle is shared.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1