Research & reports

Hara Y., McPhearson T., Sampei Y., McGrath B. · Sustainability Science (Springer) · Japan (Osaka)

Compares the urban-agriculture production potential of Osaka and New York City using high-resolution land-use data, quantifying the expansion potential onto vacant and underused land and the population that locally grown vegetables could support.

Kimisato Oda, Christoph Rupprecht, Kazuaki Tsuchiya, Steven R. McGreevy · Sustainability · Japan (Kyoto)

A study in Kyoto City, Japan, examined agricultural land use from 2007–2017 to assess urban agriculture as a sustainability strategy for shrinking cities. Analysis revealed a 10% decline (209 ha) in agricultural land use over ten years, with main post-agricultural uses being residential (40%) and vacant land (28%). The findings indicate that Kyoto City is not currently positioned to benefit from population decline through localized food production.

Kota OGUCHI · The Annals of Japan Association for Urban Sociology · Japan (Saitama City)

This article studies the impact of coordinators for Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, using the Kome Mame project in Saitama City, Japan, as a case study. The Kome Mame project is a collaborative effort involving organic farms, a for-profit company, and an NPO, where the NPO coordinates matchmaking between farmers and companies, builds mechanisms for distribution channel development, and facilitates human-resource exchanges and stakeholder relationships. The study suggests that the coordinator's role as a manager of the relationship between food and agriculture will become increasingly important, and the challenge is whether this role can be established as a socially recognized profession.

肇 石原, Hajime Ishihara · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper compared urban agriculture promotion basic plans formulated by six prefectures, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Aichi, as of October 2017. The analysis revealed policy challenges concerning the scope of inheritance tax deferment, the lending and borrowing of agricultural land in urbanization promotion areas, and the participation of non-farmers in agriculture. It concluded that the national government urgently needs to address these issues, and local governments should propose systems tailored to local conditions.

マリコ ソヤ, ミチコ コバヤシ, Mariko Soya, Michiko KOBAYASHI · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Niiza)

In Niiza City, the development of processed local vegetables is not advanced. This research matched the needs of Niiza City with the seeds of a university, leading to the industry-government-academia collaboration for the development of a "carrot dressing" using Niiza City's certified autumn-winter carrots. Students from the Department of Food and Nutrition were involved from cultivation to prototyping and design, resulting in manufacturing in March 2017 and sales in April through collaboration with local companies.

Ryo Kawabe, Hiroshi Sakazume · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Nagakute City)

This paper analyzes the importance of social capital in the sixth industrialization of urban agricultural areas, using a case study from Nagakute-cho (now Nagakute City), Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The study found that the sixth industry is an efficient strategy for managing and demonstrating the multiple functions of urban agriculture, farm villages, and agriculture itself, with social capital being a crucial driving force. Nagakute City's initiatives, based on the "Countryside Valley Initiative," were successful, leading to the emergence of an integrated form of social capital combining government-led bonding with bridging among various local residents.

Mattia Scarpellino · · Japan (Tokyo)

This architectural design thesis proposes a redesign of a peripheral area of Tokyo, specifically Nishi-Tokyo, which exhibits both urban and rural characteristics. The study explored how to integrate agri-food production activities in a large metropolitan suburb, its potential social role, and the dynamics generated in relation to contemporary living. Through literature review on living, urbanization, functional nomadism, and digitalization, analysis of urban agriculture aspects focusing on community gardens, and participation in a Tokyo workshop, design scenarios were simulated.

グエン トラン イェン カン, 涼 村田 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Tokyo)

This study clarifies users' roles in urban space creation by examining two renovated open spaces with urban gardening (OSUG) in Tokyo. Through a mixed survey, the spatial settings and user experiences were analyzed, revealing quality parameters such as "usage," "space affordance," and "image of identity." These factors illustrate seven OSUG scenarios, from private resting spots to public playgrounds and community gardens.

Yoshifumi Ikejima · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Japan

A geographic information system (GIS) study examined food access among urban residents in Japan, focusing on elderly residents, across two study areas. Approximately 60% of residents aged 65 or older were found to live far from food stores needed for daily shopping, and the study identified nearby farmer-owned produce stands and farmers' markets as local agricultural outlets that could improve access to fresh food.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・430AC0000000068） · Japan

The 2018 act that lets productive green land be leased to a third party without terminating the owner's inheritance-tax deferral. The prospective tenant files a cultivation plan certified by the mayor, giving ageing owners an exit other than selling: handing the plot to a new farmer or a community-garden operator.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

MLIT's national survey of rooftop and wall greening construction results for FY2017, aimed at mitigating the urban heat island effect and lowering urban carbon emissions, recorded about 23.1 hectares of new rooftop greening (roughly five Tokyo Domes) and 5.5 hectares of new wall greening that year, bringing cumulative totals since FY2000 to about 498 hectares of rooftop greening and 90 hectares of wall greening. Average project area was 261 m2, with a growing trend toward large-scale mixed-use projects.

内閣府地方創生推進事務局 · 内閣府 地方創生推進事務局 · Japan

A November 2018 briefing prepared by the Cabinet Office's Regional Revitalisation Secretariat. The Regional Revitalisation Promotion Grant supports self-directed, pioneering work by local authorities, requiring KPIs and a PDCA cycle and targeting projects that cut across traditional departmental silos. Its initial budget was ¥100 billion a year (¥200 billion on a project-cost basis) in each of fiscal 2016, 2017 and 2018, alongside supplementary grants such as ¥100 billion for acceleration in FY2015 and ¥90 billion for base development in FY2016. Under the Regional Revitalisation Act (Act No. 24 of 2005) that underpins it, 5,796 regional revitalisation plans had been approved by this point.

内閣府地方創生推進事務局 · 内閣府 地方創生推進事務局 · Japan

An April 2018 guideline from the Cabinet Office's Regional Revitalisation Secretariat on designing and improving projects funded by the Regional Revitalisation Promotion Grant. The general part sets out the grant's aims and six 'pioneering elements', explains what a KPI is, from which angles to set one and the pitfalls to avoid, then walks through the project cycle stage by stage under Plan-Do-Check-Action. The sector-specific part covers local innovation, agriculture-forestry-fisheries, tourism, migration to the regions, working-style reform and placemaking, each with worked examples of KPIs.

Soga M., Cox D.T.C., Yamaura Y., Gaston K.J., Kurisu K., Hanaki K. · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(1):71 · Japan

A questionnaire survey of 332 allotment gardeners and non-gardeners in Tokyo compared five self-reported outcomes: perceived general health, physical complaints, BMI, mental health and social cohesion. Allotment gardeners reported better general health, fewer complaints, better mental health and greater social cohesion, indicating that urban allotment gardening can improve residents' physical and mental health and community ties.

食都神戸推進チーム（神戸市） · 食都神戸・Gastropolis Kobe（公式サイト） · Japan

An official document explaining the basic concept of the Gastropolis Kobe 2020 vision that Kobe City announced in 2015. It frames how Kobe—a city of 1.5 million with farmland in its Kita and Nishi wards and fishing grounds along its coast—rebuilds its urban brand around food, advancing local consumption, urban agriculture and rural exchange.

· 国土交通省都市局 · Japan

National materials on the Special Productive Greenland system created by the 2017 Productive Greenland Law amendment to address the '2022 problem,' extending buy-out timing and tax benefits by ten-year renewable periods; about 89% (8,282 ha) had been designated as of end-2022.

· 参議院常任委員会調査室『立法と調査』No.394 · Japan

Legislative analysis by the House of Councillors research office, organizing the regulatory framework for urban farmland (productive greenland, taxation, leasing) and examining the rationale and issues behind the 2018 lease law in light of the 2022 problem.

Uchiyama Y., Fujihira Y., Matsuoka H., Kohsaka R. · Journal of Ethnic Foods · Japan

Analyzes definitions, history, and regional ties of traditional Japanese vegetables (e.g., Kyo, Kaga), using Kaga and Noto cases to show how ambiguous quality standards shape branding and brand management.

Uchiyama Y., Matsuoka H., Kohsaka R. · Journal of Ethnic Foods · Japan

Questionnaire survey in Komatsu City, Ishikawa, on public recognition of Kaga and Noto traditional vegetables, showing gender/age differences in awareness and information sources, with implications for transgenerational transmission and branding.

de St. Maurice G. · Food, Culture & Society 20(2) · Japan

Examines how Kyoto's Shishigatani heirloom squash, though considered not delicious, persists as culinary heritage through cultural embeddedness, temple rituals, and distinctive form, showing heritage value beyond flavor.

特定非営利活動法人 Co.to.hana, 金田 康孝, 西川 亮 · 国土交通省 都市と農・緑が共生するまちづくりに関する調査（平成28年度） · Japan (Osaka)

First-year MLIT-commissioned study by Co.to.hana validating usefulness and replicability of community farms on urban unused land, using Kitakagaya Minna-no-uen as the model — surveys, environmental monitoring, stakeholder interviews and an expert panel producing a start guide and dissemination roadmap.

国土交通省都市局 · 国土交通省都市局 · Japan

A MLIT survey report on using vacant urban land as community gardens, taking Kitakagaya's 'Minna no Uen' in Osaka as a key case and analyzing its operation and effects through user surveys, stakeholder interviews and neighborhood research.

Plieninger T., Kohsaka R., Bieling C., Hashimoto S., Kamiyama C., Kizos T., Penker M., Kieninger P., Shaw B.J., Sioen G.B., Yoshida Y., Saito O. · Sustainability Science (Springer) · Japan

A 'solution scan' comparing place-based food networks (teikei, direct sales, farmers' markets) in Europe and Japan, systematizing how urban-rural food connection contributes to maintaining biocultural diversity.

Sioen G., Sekiyama M., Terada T., Yokohari M. · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Tokyo, Japan

Quantifying vegetable output from urban farmland in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, the study finds a weight-based self-sufficiency rate of just 6.18% and an aggregate nutritional self-sufficiency of about 2.86%, showing urban agriculture covers only a tiny fraction of local food and nutrition needs.

三橋友美, 寺田徹, 横張真 · ランドスケープ研究 · Japan

A 2017 study of 62 Japanese 'experience farms' (taiken nouen) classifying operating structures by how far private companies are involved (Landscape Research Japan 80(5), pp. 647–650). In 48 farms the company mainly manages the plot and assists participants; in 4 the company leads operations and directs participants' activities; in 10 the farmer leads and the company only provides support. Corporate assistance widens the set of farm households able to open an experience farm, but the intensity of involvement varies with each site's physical and social conditions. The authors highlight the farmer-led, company-supported type as previously undocumented and potentially valuable for developing self-directed operators. Profit and loss and survival rates are not covered.