Research & reports

Zhuang Y., Lu N., Shimamura S., Maruyama A., Kikuchi M., Takagaki M. · Frontiers in Plant Science 13:992194 · Japan

Empirical study of economies of scale in constructing Japanese plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), assessing optimal commercial scale and economic viability while accounting for transaction costs.

李 靖儀, 木南 莉莉, 古澤 慎一, 木南 章 · 地域学研究 52巻2号 pp.231-254 · Japan

A Tokyo-centered survey on involvement and evaluation of rooftop farms finds high satisfaction among participants but low uptake, using SEM to analyze institutional and design policy needs for spreading private-development rooftop farms such as Mori Building's Roppongi Hills.

練馬区 · 練馬区 調査報告書 · Japan

Final report of Nerima's review panel building on the World Urban Agriculture Summit, organising directions for publicly supported urban agriculture under four pillars — circulation, environment, fairness and collaboration — including farmland conservation, agriculture-welfare links, ward allotments and outreach.

新保 奈穂美 · 世田谷区 都市農業関連研究報告 · Japan

Analyses Tamaribatake, a community garden piloted under Setagaya's proposal-based partnership programme, clarifying conditions that secure participants' freedom without rigid rules and offering operational insight for municipally supported community farms.

横浜市 環境創造局農政推進課 · 横浜市 市民調査報告 · Japan

Results of Yokohama's e-survey on citizen farms, capturing user motivations, satisfaction and challenges as baseline data for municipal policy improvements including the citizen-farm map and stronger outreach.

名古屋市 · 名古屋市 農業振興地域整備計画 · Japan

Nagoya's agricultural revitalisation area development plan, setting the institutional framework for municipally supported urban agriculture through conserving quality farmland, modernising facilities, promoting farmer-led citizen farms and collaborative local land use.

福岡市 · 福岡市 農林業総合計画 · Japan

Agriculture chapter of Fukuoka's five-year comprehensive plan, covering subsidies for citizen farms, experience farms and refresh farms plus Agrichallenge and other municipally supported urban agriculture measures.

新保奈穂美 · 都市計画報告集（日本都市計画学会）20(1), 154 · Japan (Kobe)

Demonstrates the community-revitalization effect of urban agriculture in a shrinking city through the case of Hirano Co-op Farm in Kobe, suggesting that an open-to-all farm and learning opportunities are essential to community formation.

厚 板谷, 大輔 野上, 公文 佐藤 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Asahikawa)

This study, involving 20 preschool children from one kindergarten in Asahikawa city, Japan, examined how diversifying snow surfaces in a school garden affected physical activity intensity during winter outdoor play. Five trials were conducted in December and January-February. Activity intensity in snowy mountains was more prominent in the December control trial (less snow) than in the January-February experimental trials, but various play promotions increased activity in rough snow.

Alice Covatta, Vedrana Ikalović · Sustainability · Japan (Tokyo)

This paper examines design strategies for transforming leftover urban spaces by integrating creative and playful programs, using Tokyo, Japan, as a case study. Through ethnographic observations and spatial analysis, the study demonstrates how play positively affects everyday life in public spaces and enables extraordinary uses of these spaces. The findings offer guidance for urban planners and designers on how people use playfulness to appropriate and utilize leftover spaces.

Amelie M. Vanderstock, Cecilia Grandi-Nagashiro, Gaku Kudo, Tanya Latty, Shoko Nakamura, Thomas E. White, Masashi Soga · Journal of Insect Conservation · Japan

An online survey was conducted with 443 adults in Japan to investigate the association between nature and gardening experiences, demographics, species identification knowledge, and biophilia (liking) and biophobia (dislike, fear, and disgust) towards invertebrates. Frequent gardeners were found to be more likely to express biophilia and perceive invertebrates as beneficial, and generally less likely to express biophobia. The results suggest that gardening can serve as a pathway to foster appreciation for invertebrate biodiversity in urban settings.

Hiroyuki Tsunashima · Impact · Japan

Dr. Hiroyuki Tsunashima of Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan, leads a project linking agriculture and social welfare to provide job opportunities for socially disadvantaged individuals. The project involves clients working on farms under the supervision of social welfare staff, emphasizing autonomous skill acquisition and holistic practices. This initiative draws from the Teikei movement, a community-supported agriculture system in Japan, to facilitate the process through food and farmer-consumer partnership experiences.

肇 石原 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study examines trends in Japan following the enactment of the Urban Agriculture Promotion Basic Law in April 2015, focusing on the conversion of residential land to agricultural land. In Osaka City's Joto-ku, former residential land has been maintained as a rental farm since 2019. Additionally, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (from 2017) and Kobe City Office (from 2021) have implemented subsidy measures for such conversions. These recent movements, reversing the historical trend of agricultural land becoming residential, are still in their infancy.

Shingo Yoshida, Hironori Yagi · 農村計画学会誌 · Japan (Tokyo)

This study clarified the purposes and actual use of leased productive green lands by urban farmers in Tokyo, Japan. Case studies revealed that farmers leased land for scale expansion, new crops/methods, agricultural corporation establishment, and new entries, particularly for successors and new entrants. A questionnaire survey in six cities found that potential tenant farmers prioritized farming conditions, while landowners focused on community harmony, with preferences differing between existing and non-participating farmers.

Hiroshi Kurose · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Japan (Hiroshima)

This paper examines the necessary perspectives for local governments to introduce the productive green space system, using Hiroshima City's 2020 implementation as a case study. It reviews the current state of urban agriculture and inheritance issues in Hiroshima, clarifies the requirements for productive green spaces and their relationship with agricultural cooperatives, and discusses future directions for city planning that coexists with agriculture.

Mariia Ermilova, Mitsunari Terada, Isami Kinoshita · · Japan (Tokyo)

From March 2016 to 2021, a five-year action research project was conducted in Matsudo, a Tokyo suburb, Japan, by two PhD students from Chiba University in collaboration with a local neighborhood association. Through cultivating culturally significant plants like herbs, vegetables, and flowers, and utilizing them for crafts and cosmetics, local women, the elderly, and children developed new skills, gained financial support, and social confidence. These activities expanded from edible landscape cultivation in planters to the creation of eight gardens, providing alternative forms of community participation.

Yosuke Masuda, Takashi Oka, Erika Yoshinari, Takaaki Nishida, Tadashi Ikeda · Ecological research monographs · Japan

This research collected eight types of administrative plans from local governments across Japan related to the multifunctionality of farmland and reviewed the extent to which they describe these functions. Findings revealed that farmland's multifunctionality was incorporated into many municipal plans, with municipalities of a certain population size and high financial strength index tending to mention these roles more frequently. However, descriptions of functions like "disaster mitigation and response" and "water and food supply" in times of disaster were less common.

Kimihiro Hino, Takahiro Yamazaki, Akiko Iida, Kentaro Harada, Makoto Yokohari · Landscape and Urban Planning · Japan (Tokyo)

This study evaluated the contribution of five types of activities in productive urban landscapes (PULs) to physical activity among 80 Tokyo residents using accelerometers and activity diaries. Older participants frequently engaged in these activities, spending a high percentage of their total energy expenditure, with satoyama woodlands averaging approximately one-third of national weekly recommendations for older adults. Total daily energy expenditure was significantly higher on workdays (1.18 to 1.36 times non-workdays), and hourly energy expenditure in PULs was comparable to public parks.

Naomi Shimpo · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Japan

This case study reports how Toyama City, Japan, launched a municipally led community garden program using neighborhood block parks (gaiku koen), the smallest category of urban park in Japan. Growing and harvesting vegetables and fruit in urban parks had generally been regarded as inappropriate on public-interest grounds, but the city persuaded the responsible ministry that community gardens benefit urban residents, particularly older adults, and meet existing needs of these parks. As a result, management of the community gardens was transferred, through official procedures, to resident-run park stewardship associations (koen aigokai).

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・504AC1000000077） · Japan

The 2022 framework law on children's policy, centred on children's right to be heard and their best interests, obliging the government to adopt the Children's Outline. The parent statute of the children's-places guideline — the institutional starting point for community places, gardens included.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 水管理・国土保全局 上下水道企画課 · Japan

A Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism page on expanding fertilizer use of sewage sludge resources. Of the roughly 2.3 million tonnes of sewage sludge generated annually, about 50,000 tonnes of phosphorus content is present; roughly 1,000 treatment plants put sludge to fertilizer use, but this covers only about 15% of total sludge generated. The 'Food Security Enhancement Policy Package,' decided December 27, 2022, set a 2030 target of doubling fertilizer use of sewage sludge resources/compost and raising the share of domestic resources in phosphorus-based fertilizer use to 40%.

· JAcom 農業協同組合新聞（一般社団法人農協協会） · Japan

A December 2021 survey by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism found that among 199 municipalities with productive green zones (seisan ryokuchi) designated in 1992 (total 9,412 ha), 86% (8,048 ha) had already been, or were expected to be, redesignated as "specified productive green zones," which extend agricultural preservation and tax benefits beyond the original 30-year period. 7% of landowners had no intention to redesignate, and another 7% were undecided. Tokyo had the highest redesignation rate at 92% (2,227 ha), followed by Saitama (85%), Chiba (87%), Kanagawa (87%), Aichi (75%), Kyoto (87%), Osaka (85%), Hyogo (87%), and Nara (87%).

横浜市港北区 · 横浜市港北区 · Japan

The rooftop garden at Kohoku Ward Office in Yokohama reopened on April 1, 2022 after waterproofing and flowerbed renovation work. It is positioned as a measure against the heat island effect, for energy savings, CO2 reduction, and environmental education, with about 20 "green supporters" active Tuesdays 10am-12pm. The ward's green coverage ratio is reported to have fallen from 33.4% in fiscal 1992 to 24.1% in fiscal 2019.

東京都都市整備局 · 東京都都市整備局 (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Urban Development) · Japan

A section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Urban Development's case study collection on its comprehensive green-space policy, describing Nerima Ward's 'disaster-cooperation farmland' scheme, under which farmers agree by covenant (since 1996) to let their land be used in a major disaster for evacuation space, temporary housing sites, equipment storage, or fresh food supply. Citing MAFF data, it states that as of 31 March 2020, 76 municipalities across 8 prefectures in Japan's three major metropolitan areas had similar programs covering 1,353 hectares. It also notes that because the agreements are not legally binding, proactive use led by local government is difficult.

Harada K., Hino K., Iida A., Yamazaki T., Usui H., Asami Y., Yokohari M. · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), 18(2):542 · Japan

A cross-sectional study comparing 783 urban-farming participants with 1,254 non-participants in Tokyo. Participants in both allotment and experience-farm programs reported significantly better self-rated and mental health, highlighting the health value of regular social interaction in urban farming.