Research & reports

Kondo C., Zollet S., Kobayashi M., Yamamoto N. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Japan

A systematic analysis of fifty years since the 1971 Kobe origin of 'Teikei'—the root of CSA worldwide—tracing the evolution of the ten Teikei principles through cases across Japan, including Kansai groups (Iga, Nabari, Osaka, Kobe).

Black J. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Japan

Analyzes the motivations of participants in Japanese alternative food networks (teikei, direct sales, farmers' markets) through the lens of culture, community and fun, focusing on the social-capital-building function of urban-rural connection.

Chika Takatori, Yulu ZHENG, S.M. Asik Ullah · Urban and Regional Planning Review · Japan

This research proposed a spatial design framework for urban open and green spaces in Japan, focusing on urban agriculture amidst a declining and aging farming population. The study first analyzed and mapped the supply of land available for urban agriculture using GIS, population mesh data, and interviews. Secondly, it calculated and mapped the spatial distribution of demand for urban agriculture based on surveys and statistical information. Finally, a framework was constructed to compare, evaluate, and match the supply and demand of urban agriculture.

Hayato IIDA, Yasushi Kyutoku, Wakana KUDO, Yoshiki HARADA · Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering · Japan (Tokyo)

This study investigated whether the UGS (Urban Green Space Scale), an impression evaluation scale for Tokyo's urban green spaces, could assess impressions of two urban rooftop gardens with flat versus stepped spatial configurations. Based on an online questionnaire (N=670), confirmatory factor analyses indicated a poor or unacceptable fit of urban rooftop gardens to the UGS. Exploratory factor analyses yielded different factor structures, suggesting that new scales are required for evaluating impressions of urban rooftop gardens.

Runan Yang, Hironori Yagi · Cities · Japan (Tokyo)

A study investigated the occupational values of 89 certified urban farmers in Tokyo using both Likert scale and Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) methods. Analysis revealed that farmers highly prioritized relationships with consumers, while values related to nature and the environment were less emphasized. The BWS method offered deeper insights into farmers' values, uncovering subtleties that Likert scales may obscure.

Guolin Xu, Shigeto YANAI · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Japan

Based on a survey of 11 urban parks with allotment gardens in Yokohama City, Japan, this study examined the characteristics that promote participation by diverse entities in park management and explored more effective management approaches. Results showed that involvement of local organizations in management was limited to a small number of programs, that participation by diverse entities was associated with increased community interaction, improved intergenerational interaction, and greater park use, and that community gardens gave residents a venue for shared agricultural activity that promoted both community interaction and broader participation in management.

Akiko Iida, Toru Terada, Kazuaki Tsuchiya, Tadashi Yamaguchi, Makoto Yokohari · Urban forestry & urban greening · Japan

Using Tokyo — where urban and agricultural land use have long been intermixed — as a case study, mailed questionnaires and in-person semi-structured interviews with urban farmers examined how community-scale composting of urban-forest green waste is integrated into commercial urban agriculture (2024, Japan). About one-third of professional urban farmers still produced compost, mainly from leaf litter, to improve soil quality, and had adapted to urbanization by sourcing leaf litter beyond their own woodlands from neighboring urban forests within a few kilometers, including parks, schools, and shrines. While urbanization has drastically altered the physical landscape, farmers have carried this intangible composting system forward for hundreds of years by retrofitting it, though the study found farmers are motivated by economic rather than environmental reasons. The authors conclude that decentralized composting works effectively in commercial urban agriculture where waste supply and demand sites are geographically close, and call for further research on scaling up waste recycling through urban agriculture.

千島土地株式会社 · 千島土地株式会社 · Japan

Chishima Land Co. launched the 'Kitakagaya Creative Farm Project' in 2011 in Suminoe Ward, Osaka, and opened 'Minna no Uen Kitakagaya' (Farm No. 2, at Kitakagaya 5-2-29) the following year, 2012. Conceived as a way to activate vacant land for community revitalization, the urban farm combines art and agriculture and emphasizes communication among participants; it is currently operated by the general incorporated association Goodluck.

東京都環境局 · 東京都環境局 · Japan

In 2024, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Environment named the Ginza Honeybee Project (an NPO started in spring 2006) as an Excellence Award winner in the first Tokyo-NbS Action Award. The organization supplies honey gathered within a 2 km radius to department stores and restaurants as a local product, and also grows sweet potatoes on rooftops (processed into shochu), cultivates plants used for washi paper, and runs environmental education programs; in 2024 honey production reached about 2.7 tonnes and roughly 18,000 people took part in hands-on programs.

内閣府 · 内閣府 · Japan

A nationwide survey report on Japan's specified nonprofit corporations (NPO houjin), published by the Cabinet Office in March 2024 and covering fiscal 2023. It tabulates corporate profiles (location, year of establishment, age and gender of the representative), activity (field of work, volunteer numbers, problems faced, partnerships with companies, international activity), accounting, disclosure and digitalisation practices, and financial realities such as main income sources, borrowing and membership-fee revenue, separating certified from non-certified corporations. Responses are organised into seven regional blocks from Hokkaido-Tohoku to Kyushu.

一般財団法人 日本民間公益活動連携機構 · 一般財団法人 日本民間公益活動連携機構（JANPIA） · Japan

JANPIA's evaluation guideline for the intermediary distribution organisations, activity-support organisations and executing organisations that deliver Japan's dormant-deposit-funded programmes, first issued in July 2019 and revised in May 2024. It sets out the basics and purpose of evaluation within the dormant deposits scheme, who evaluates and when, and the governing principles, then devotes a separate chapter to social impact evaluation and its structure. The document shows how evaluation is built into every tier of the funding chain as a condition of the money.

Kishimoto K., Yan W. · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (Cambridge), 38:e54 · Japan

Quantitatively classifies roughly 430 registered allotment gardens in Tokyo by number of plots, plot size, price, contract duration, and facilities, mapping their spatial distribution and providers. Most allotments were founded after 2000 and are owned by local governments, yet demand for plots exceeds supply across much of the metropolis.

神戸市 · 内閣府地方創生推進事務局（地域再生計画認定） · Japan

A regionally certified revitalization plan that Kobe City submitted to the Cabinet Office. Building on the Gastropolis Kobe 2020 vision, it sets KPI targets for local-food consumption, exchange population, new farmers and food-business startups through programs such as EAT LOCAL KOBE, farmers markets, citizen and tourist farm experiences, and student-farmer product development.

Iida A., Yamazaki T., Hino K., Yokohari M. · npj Urban Sustainability 3:4 · Japan

Focusing on Tokyo, the study quantitatively verified how access to local food through urban agriculture relates to residents' subjective well-being, physical activity, and food-security concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. It showed that walkable-distance urban agriculture supported community health and food-system resilience.

Nakajima Y., Akita N. · 都市計画論文集 58(3):767-773 · Japan

Addressing urban farmland repositioned from 'land to be converted to housing' to 'land that should exist' under the 2015 Urban Agriculture Promotion Plan, the study examines how municipalities should strategically position productive green areas and operate the purchase-request system to preserve them, using Setagaya Ward—an early adopter of such purchases—as a case study.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省（令和5年9月策定） · Japan

The core strategy of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism aiming to mainstream and 'build in' green infrastructure across all sectors with the public and private sectors working in tandem. It sets out seven perspectives—collaboration, community, technology, evaluation, finance, global and digital—and positions a broad range of spaces, including urban farmland and everyday greenery, as multifunctional green social infrastructure for stormwater management, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, health and community.

Miyagi R. · Journal of Science Education (Japan), 63(3):645–654 · Japan (Okinawa)

Six months of observation in a public kindergarten class (age 5) in Okinawa during plant cultivation in the garden and shared field. Analyses how teachers' personifying talk supports children's empathy and learning about plants—practical insight for kindergarten gardening and food education.

Hénaff E., Najjar D., Perez M., Mason C., McMeekin P. · Environmental Microbiome, 18:23 · United States (Brooklyn) / Australia / Italy / Japan

A pilot using three rooftop beehives in Brooklyn, NY, comparing hive substrates (honey, debris, swabs, bee bodies) to map surrounding urban metagenomes, then extending to hive debris from Sydney, Melbourne, Venice and Tokyo. Each city shows a distinct metagenomic profile, positioning rooftop beekeeping as a tool for reading the urban environment.

松井 崚, 栗山 尚子, 水野 優子 · 日本都市計画学会関西支部研究発表会講演概要集 21巻 pp.49-52 · Japan

Typologizes private-sector housing-district regeneration including Daiwa House's Livnest Town project (Midorioka Neopolis), showing that in developer-responsibility types, firms lead diverse initiatives such as community hubs and cultivation businesses.

多摩地域都市農業振興協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Case report on using the Rural Revitalisation Grant (urban agriculture function measures) to build an urban-agriculture community network around Hachioji in the Tama area through a regional council supported citizen and experience farms.

農と親しみ江東区の共生社会を考える協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Grant case study creating a children's farm-contact space in Toyosu, Koto Ward, using urban farmland creation support — a report on ward-council-business collaboration for vacant-land farming, food education and an inclusive community.

株式会社Tryfe, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Fukuoka case report on using MAFF grants for exchange markets linking urban farmers and citizens, promoting local food and interest in citizen and experience farms with municipal collaboration.

株式会社ネイバーズファーム, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Hino case report on opening a farm for neighbourhood markets using national urban-agriculture symbiosis grants and municipal collaboration, linking citizen-farm produce distribution with community building.

かきつ畑プロジェクト推進協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Chiryu, Aichi grant case linking local schools to promote urban agriculture, documenting a model of municipal-school-farmer collaboration in experience farms and food education near Nagoya.

一般社団法人KOBE FARMERS MARKET, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Kobe grant case report on youth-oriented farmers markets using urban agriculture function grants, documenting city-farmer-civic collaboration to secure urban farmers and activate citizen farms and direct sales.