Research & reports

Megumi Higuchi · Japanese Journal of Human Geography · Japan

This paper analyzed the Minuma Fureai Garden in Kawaguchi City, Saitama prefecture, finding that its operation costs exceed annual income from user fees (15,000 Yen/person/year), with municipal subsidies covering 18% of total income. While land use regulations keep rent low, deregulation could threaten the garden's existence. A user survey revealed 70% of users were over 50, and 60% re-applied after a one-year contract, though this varied by distance.

Isami Kinoshita, Jin Yoshikawa · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

This study identified the meaning and role of edible landscapes in urban residential areas by comparing three districts in Japan: Nezu, Taishido, and Kokubunji-shinmachi. Through observation, interviews, and questionnaires, five common meanings and roles were found, including providing fresh food, fostering memories, promoting communication, preserving folk customs, and encouraging ecological thinking despite maintenance challenges.

Hyeong-Seok Choi, Yoshiyuki Amemiya · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Japan

Artificial planting soil layers used in settings such as rooftop gardens typically have a two-layer structure: a coarse drainage layer and a planting layer. Assuming no irrigation, this study examined the required layer thickness based on soil physical properties and weather conditions. Using 30 years of rainfall records for Tokyo, the logarithmic cumulative distribution of the number of days between rainfalls was well fitted by a normal distribution, with the number of days between rainfalls corresponding to 95% and 99% occurrence probabilities being 29 and 64 days, respectively. Numerical calculations for a two-layer system with a 100 mm lower layer examined the relationship between layer thickness and the time until the planting layer wilts on average from initial moisture; at 99% probability, the required planting layer thickness was 236 mm, roughly half the 424 mm required for a single-layer system.

Yasunari Miyake · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan

This study used a Geographic Information System to analyze the location of allotment gardens for elderly users in Gifu City, Japan, measuring both direct distance and road distance from users' homes to the gardens, and ran simulations of changes to garden provision. Increasing the number of garden plots and changing the composition of users shortened the user distance to some extent, while newly opening gardens in the city center — where none previously existed — greatly shortened the user distance.

Rie Oba · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

Since the 1991 amendment of Japan's Agricultural Land Act, agricultural land in designated urban areas has been divided into two categories: land conserved for agriculture and land available for residential use. This study investigated the state of allotment gardens in several such urban areas, focusing on whether the land was designated under the Agricultural Land Act and various related acts governing the establishment of allotment gardens. It clarified the resulting differences in residential-land development potential and farmers' economic conditions between the two categories.

Ren Azuma · Journal of Rural Problems · Japan; Europe

This paper examines the potential for recreational use of farmland by comparing dual land use policies between Japan and Europe (mainly the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands). While Europe has not considered allotment gardens as dual farmland use, Japan is promoting them for both recreation and agricultural production through new legislative measures. Additionally, small-scale caravan sites using farmland are exempt from strict planning controls in many European countries to promote recreational use, but Japan lacks an equivalent. In conclusion, the paper suggests that Japan needs to introduce or further expand dual farmland use policies for recreation and agricultural production in these three policy areas.

Hikaru Hoshi, Keiichi Moritsuka, Yoshiyuki Tokunaga, Hiroshi Suda · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

Based on a comparison of allotment gardens in local cities versus metropolitan areas and on-site inspection of several gardens, this paper proposes a facilities and management policy for allotment gardens in local urban areas of Japan. It finds that in local urban areas most allotment gardens are located in suburban areas, whereas in metropolitan areas they are mostly located downtown; even the simplest garden type is expensive in metropolitan areas, while some enriched-type gardens with modest fees exist in local areas. It also discusses the relationship between how allotment gardens are evaluated and their facilities and management, concluding that local-area garden managers need dedication and users need to communicate with managers, guides, and other users.

Yasunari Miyake, Yasuo Matsumoto · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan (Ichinomiya City)

This study examined the future of allotment gardens in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture, by interviewing 20 landowners regarding land ownership and land use. Allotment distribution expanded into marginal urban regions, with new allotments concentrating in frontier areas. While most landowners were satisfied and intended to maintain allotments, those in urbanization promotion areas faced financial difficulties due to high taxes and motivation for land use conversion, indicating that allotment management will fail in these areas.

Yasunari Miyake, Yasuo Matsumoto · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan (Gifu)

This study investigated the user radius and attitudes of allotment garden users for the aged in Gifu City, Japan. The average user radius was 1,280m, with 10 out of 19 gardens having a radius of 1,000m or less. A significant negative correlation was found between user radius and residential density within 1km, and the absence of gardens in the city center led to an expansive user radius. Over 90% of users continued to use the gardens with high satisfaction, but distance significantly affected usage frequency and time spent, with assessments declining dramatically beyond 1,500m.

Rie Matsunaga, Hong Tae Lee, Isoya SHINJI · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

This study aimed to gather ideas about desirable physical characteristics and management of allotment gardens in an urban area. Standardized questionnaires were mailed to 660 subjects, with 345 responses received. The results clarified current user attributes and usage situations, proposing future improvements regarding traffic means, distance, contract terms, use size, cultivation guidance, facilities or equipment, use charge, and services for urban allotment gardens.

Hiroshi Suda, Tetsuaki Kusunoki, Yoshiyuki Tokunaga · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan (Sendai)

This paper analyzed the needs for allotment gardens among citizens of Sendai using a questionnaire and quantification method. The needs were categorized into three types: simply type, enrich type, and middle type. It also discussed differences in citizen awareness of allotment gardens between local cities and metropolitan areas, proposing policies for providing allotment gardens in local cities.

Hiroshi AIZAWA, Kensuke Inoue, Masazumi NOMA · Journal of Architecture Planning and Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ) · Japan

This study explained the reasons for non-cultivation in urban agricultural promotion areas and examined future subjects for conserving normal farmland surrounded by urbanization promotion areas. The occurrence rate of wasteland and infringement on agricultural land diversion in non-cultivated land differed according to city planning regulations and cultivating forms. The reasons for non-cultivation were found to be greatly related to farmers' workers, land ownership scale, and planning law, with owners of large landholdings who had no workers due to advanced age showing little intention to maintain agricultural operations or conserve farmland.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・402AC0000000044） · Japan

The 1990 act promoting the development of shimin-noen (citizens' allotment gardens). Municipalities designate allotment zones and operators obtain certification of a development-and-management plan; the law treats the leasing of farmland and the building of garden facilities as one package.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・401AC0000000058） · Japan

The 1989 special-measures act exempting small, short-term, non-commercial farmland lettings (the allotment-garden pattern: under 10 ares, up to five years) from Farmland Act transfer permission. It let local governments, agricultural cooperatives and others run citizen farms, forming the legal foundation of Japan's allotment gardens.

Chiaki Negoro, Atsushi Tunekawa · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

This paper examines the public perception of urban agricultural land as valuable open space in urban fringe areas. The study found that urban agricultural lands are considered valuable "green" spaces, with orchards (mainly persimmon trees) and farms being particularly highly evaluated. These positive perceptions were observed in both agricultural and nearby residential areas.

功 梶井, 和彦 武内, 洋一 松木 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This abstract describes the UTokyo Repository, an online platform aimed at centrally accumulating, preserving, and disseminating various academic achievements produced at the University of Tokyo in electronic form to the world. Its main purpose is to develop digital collections, make them available online, and preserve them for long-term access.

Youko Yokokawa, 洋子 横川 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This 1988 report describes changes in Tokyo's agricultural structure driven by urbanization alongside the state of urban residents' diets. Labor and farmland shifted from Tokyo's special wards to the Tama area, where intensive cultivation of fresh produce such as vegetables was concentrated, while in mountainous districts agriculture was combined with forestry. Cultivated land had shrunk by about 60% over the preceding 25 years, and the number of full-time farm households had fallen by 70%, while part-time farm households roughly doubled. Taking advantage of proximity to a large consumer market, 118 vegetable species were cultivated, with production of daikon radish, spinach, and komatsuna increasing year on year. Self-sufficiency rates for key products were 12.7% for vegetables, 7.2% for milk, 3.4% for eggs, and 2.4% for meat. In the urban diet, average nutrient requirements were largely met, though calcium was somewhat lacking and vitamins B1 and C slightly insufficient. Intake of beans, seafood, and vegetables was low by food group, and average daily salt intake was 13.4g, above the 10g target. Eating out and skipping meals were relatively uncommon overall, but skipping meals — especially breakfast — was more common among high-school-age students and older.

Yuzo Uchida · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

This study aims to clarify the situation and types of community farms in Japan, their usage patterns, and their impact on the lives of urban residents. It notes the strong demand for community farms for cultivating vegetables and flowers among urban residents. Various types of community farms exist, including allotment gardens, Japanese Kleingartens, self-supplying community farms, and full-scale orchards in the countryside.

和彦 武内, 洋一 松木 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

The available abstract for this 1987 Japanese paper consists only of a repository description (the University of Tokyo's institutional repository, UTokyo Repository) rather than the paper's content, so no findings, methods, or data about farmland's green-space value or the role of urban agriculture can be reported from it.

Junji Yamamura, Tatsuo Ura · The New Geography · Japan

Suburban agriculture around large cities has generally been declining under rapid urbanization, but the detailed development process of tourist farms as a form of suburban agriculture has not been well explained. Taking the right bank of the Tama River as a case, this paper examines how the long-established pick-your-own Tamagawa pear orchards adapted to and were transformed by Kawasaki City's rapid urbanization from the mid-1950s onward. In the right-bank area of northern Kawasaki City, despite rapid urbanization, pick-your-own tourist pear orchards remain widely distributed and draw brisk crowds in autumn, coexisting amid residences, apartment buildings, shops, and parking lots as urbanized land use spreads. The tourist orchards developed after 1928, when the Odakyu Electric Railway opened through joint efforts with local farms, and during the decade after 1956, depressed pear market prices led many farms to convert to the tourist-farm model and become profitable; the orchards currently sell 46% of annual production through pick-your-own tourism and 52% through roadside direct sales, while farms are generally sustained with income from real-estate side businesses such as rental housing, apartments, and parking lots. In northern Kawasaki, urbanization tied to residential development has passed its peak but continues steadily, and the tourist pear orchards are gradually decreasing; the paper states their outlook is clouded by deteriorating farming conditions and difficulty securing successors, prompting a new response in the form of Kawasaki City's tourist-farm policy, which includes establishing citizen orchards, fruit parks, and citizen farms.

Taizan Oishi, 堪山 大石 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study analyzed the transformation and reorganization processes of suburban agriculture and farmers in urbanizing areas, including "former farmer groups." It examined land conversion, changes in crop cultivation, farmer numbers, and agricultural employment. The research found that rental housing management is not economically viable, and that due to an abnormally high land price appreciation rate, the earlier rental housing management is undertaken, the greater the loss incurred, despite an observed increase in rental housing.

Yoshiharu OKAMOTO, Tsuyoshi Yoneda, Zyunichi Tamazaki · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study investigated the actual conditions of school gardens at 77 primary schools in Osaka City, Japan. Based on the findings, it designed a model plan for creating school gardens in urban primary schools; the average garden area was 956 sq m, and the average utilization rate (garden area relative to available space) was 37.1% — figures the study characterizes as insufficient both in space and in tree variety for maintaining trees as teaching materials — and it examines how to most effectively use the limited available space given these constraints.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・349AC0000000068） · Japan

The 1974 law establishing productive green land districts: farmland inside urbanisation promotion areas keeps farmland-level taxation in exchange for restrictions on construction. The 1991 amendment paired it with residential-level taxation in the three metropolitan areas; the 2017 amendment lowered the size threshold to 300 square metres and created the tokutei (specified) designation.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・348AC0000000072） · Japan

The 1973 act on conservation and promotion of urban green space, providing green space conservation areas, citizen-green-space contracts and greening districts. The 2017 amendment added the certified citizen green space scheme and explicitly positioned urban farmland as green space, joining farm policy to green-space policy.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・343AC0000000100） · Japan

The 1968 City Planning Act, creating the urbanisation-promotion / urbanisation-control divide and the system of zoning districts. Productive green land districts are one such district; the tension of farmland sitting inside areas 'to be urbanised within roughly ten years' begins here.