Research & reports

環境省 · 環境省 (Ministry of the Environment, Japan) · Japan

On 21 June 2024, Japan's Ministry of the Environment published its estimate of national food loss for FY2022 (Reiwa 4), totaling approximately 4.72 million tonnes (2.36 million tonnes from businesses, 2.36 million tonnes from households), down about 510,000 tonnes from FY2021's 5.23 million tonnes (2.79 million business, 2.44 million household). The government's goal is to halve food loss by FY2030 relative to FY2000 levels.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan) · Japan

On 21 June 2024, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that business-sector food loss for FY2022 fell to 2.36 million tonnes, meeting the national target of halving business food loss from the FY2000 baseline of 5.47 million tonnes to 2.73 million tonnes by FY2030. This is a decrease of 430,000 tonnes (15.4%) from the prior year's 2.79 million tonnes.

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.

Shigita Gentaro, Tran Phuong Dung, Pervin Mst. Naznin, Duong Thanh-Thuy, Imoh Odirich Nnennaya, Monden Yuki, Nishida Hidetaka, Tanaka Katsunori, Sugiyama Mitsuhiro, Kawazu Yoichi, Tomooka Norihiko, Kato Kenji · Breeding Science, 73(3): 263-275 · Japan

Genotyping-by-sequencing of 755 melon accessions in the NARO Genebank identified ~39,000 SNPs to clarify genetic relationships and population structure and to construct a World Melon Core Collection, supporting conservation and use of genetic resources.

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.

大阪府摂津市, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Settsu City grant case installing signage for disaster-cooperation farmland, showing a municipal public-support model linking urban farmland's disaster and green functions with conservation of citizen farms.

神奈川県 · 神奈川県 調査報告書 · Japan

Kanagawa prefectural tabulation of citizen farms by municipality — including 285 in Yokohama and 64 in Kawasaki — enabling comparison of public, cooperative and farmer-led setups across the prefecture.

川崎市 経済労働局 都市農業振興センター · 川崎市 調査報告書 · Japan

Kawasaki status report on farmland area, producers, productive greenbelts, tourism farms, citizen farms and regional exchange farms, quantifying small-scale urban production and publicly supported experience farms.

Rushi Wang, Shigeto YANAI · Land · Japan

This study surveyed school garden managers at public elementary schools in an urban area of Japan to analyze school garden characteristics and influencing factors. Findings indicated that school gardens inside schools offer better safety but less community connection, while external school farms provide more agricultural experience space. Schools with both types showed stronger community ties but decreased safety, and a notable lack of budget, teachers, supportive policies, and manager motivation was observed in operating school gardens.

Benjamin Schrager, Hiroki Ikeda, Takahashi Yukitsugu · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Japan

This article explores Utsunomiya University’s Eco-programs, which combine a pesticide-free community garden with an educational series, using ethnographic data. Findings indicate tensions between the Eco-programs' agroecological goals and other institutional goals at the university. Despite these conflicts, the programs provide a space for agroecological gardening and serve as an example of an alternative agricultural initiative in Japan.

王 文倩, 大島一二 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

A paper on the Kashiwabara House Grape Shippers Association, a member organization of JA Osaka Nakakawachi in Japan, examines what activities the member organization undertakes to demonstrate the cooperative's organizational strength, its functions and issues, and its future direction, based on a review of prior research and field interviews. JA Osaka Nakakawachi has natural conditions suitable for agricultural production but has been strongly affected by the urbanization of Osaka Prefecture; as a result, its agricultural management has developed in the form of urban agriculture, with farmland and management scale considerably smaller than the national average. Its main agricultural products are vegetables and fruit trees such as grapes.

瑞樹 荒毛, 昌弥 菊地, 明日風 清水, 洋一 松本, Mitsuyoshi KISHIGAMI · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

With the public "Cooperative Agricultural Extension Program" in Japan facing growing budget and staffing constraints, and prior research pointing to a need for JA (agricultural cooperative) farm-guidance services to compensate for or substitute it in scale and function, this study (2023, Japan) examined JAs that administer urban agriculture through a review of statistical data, interviews with farm-guidance staff, and content analysis of disclosure publications from three Osaka Prefecture JAs, assessing the current state and potential of their farm-guidance services as a substitute provider. The analysis found that even for urban-type JAs, which can relatively easily build market-driven production and sales models, their farm-guidance services remain unable to adequately compensate for or substitute the public extension program in scale and function.

Hua Xu, Miki U. Kobayashi · Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) · Japan

A study (2023, Japan) conducted a psychological-evaluation experiment in which participants viewed a 360-degree view of the landscape of rooftop gardens in the Shibuya commercial district of Tokyo, examining the relationship between spatial composition and psychological evaluation. Three axes were first identified from the psychological evaluations of the rooftop garden landscape. For inward-facing rooftop gardens, the comfort factor increased with larger floor area and more plants; for street-facing rooftop gardens, the comfort factor decreased when floor area was small and the view was dominated by buildings, roads, and fences with little vegetation.