Research & reports

Shimpo N. · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems (Wiley), 6:e20015 · Japan

A case study of a suburban-Tokyo community garden that collects neighborhood kitchen waste and returns it to the soil as compost, forming a local food cycle. It documents how the bottom-up founder sustained the garden, provided work opportunities for people with disabilities and food-education for children, and built links with welfare facilities, kindergartens, and schools.

· 都市計画論文集（公益社団法人 日本都市計画学会）56巻2号 · Japan

A peer-reviewed paper analyzing how community-development organizations support off-market distribution (direct and contract sales) of urban agriculture, using cases in Kashiwa and Kokubunji. It provides scholarly context for public-private farmers-market and local-food efforts such as Kobe's EAT LOCAL KOBE.

農林水産省 農村振興局農村計画課都市農業室 · 農林水産省（都市農地活用支援センター セミナー資料） · Japan

A Ministry of Agriculture briefing on the current state and policy trends of urban agriculture. It summarises trends in urban farmland area, productive/specified-productive green space, measures under the Urban Agriculture Promotion Act, and initiatives toward diverse functions such as citizen farms, experience farms and agriculture-welfare collaboration — a baseline reference for municipalities designing urban-agriculture policy.

Yoshida S., Yagi H. · Sustainability 13(8):4316 · Japan

Drawing on a survey of 74 farms in Tokyo, the study revealed conditions for farm resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between short-term resilience and long-term farm development. More than half of the farms increased sales, and short-term resilience contributed to farmers' intentions for long-term development and farmland preservation.

中川 睦司, 高橋 秀和, 上田 健治, 渡辺 明夫, 赤木 宏守, 櫻井 健二 · 園芸学研究（Hort. Res. (Japan)）, 20(4): 379-385 · Japan

Using SSR markers on four Akita native eggplant varieties and 46 domestic landraces, phylogenetic and population structure analyses inferred the genetic relationships and likely introduction routes of traditional Akita eggplant cultivars.

千葉 舞優, 西村 亮彦 · 景観・デザイン研究講演集 No.17 · Japan

Using Odakyu's regenerated Hoshinotani Danchi as a case study, this research examines the planning and operation of community spaces including the Hatamusubi rental farm, Kissaten Laundry café, and childcare support facilities, showing how movement between facilities generates small-scale exchange including the surrounding area.

世田谷区 · 世田谷区 検討報告書 · Japan

Setagaya's review report from its urban-agriculture and farmland-conservation PT after the 2022 productive-green-area issue, outlining the current state and future direction of publicly supported urban farmland use including buy-out conservation, agriculture-welfare collaboration, ward allotments and community farms such as Tamaribatake.

Kondo C. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(4):103-121 · Japan

A case study of generational handover in two Kansai teikei groups, analyzing how the transition to a successor generation re-energizes the groups as 'diverse economies'.

Chika Kondo · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Japan

This paper analyzes Japan's teikei movement (Japanese CSA) and how it exemplifies diverse economies. Through case studies of two teikei groups in the Kansai region, it assesses how changes made by current generations allow teikei to adapt to long-standing challenges, such as the decline of volunteer labor. Despite current members' detachment from strong activist identities, they sustain their organizations through part-time work, community building, and institutionalizing volunteer labor.

Ryosuke Koda, Susumu Kawahara, 亮輔 甲田, 晋 川原 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

A case study of the "Koku-Vege" project in Kokubunji City, Tokyo, Japan, investigated agricultural product branding in urban agriculture. The project built upon existing agricultural promotion policies and citizen activities, involving administrative departments skilled in public relations, which fostered broad understanding and empathy for the brand. Continuous communication by agricultural product delivery personnel connecting farmers and restaurants, along with regular government-led events, contributed to changes in restaurant awareness, new relationship building, and expanded brand recognition within the region, demonstrating features that promote intra-regional branding.

Kana Nakatsuka · Journal of Rural Problems · Japan (Higashi-Osaka City)

Higashi-Osaka City implemented the "Farm Mileage2 Campaign" to promote urban agriculture, collaborating with food business operators to jointly develop agricultural products. As a result, residential areas of consumers preferring ethical foods expanded based on the shipping destinations of food business operators. The movement also fostered events for food and agriculture education, promoting understanding of urban agriculture rather than just leisure. Many urban residents were found to desire agriculture near their homes.

Izumi ARAKAWA, Noriko Akita · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Japan (Tokyo)

This study identified the characteristics of local plan policies based on the Basic Law for Urban Agricultural Promotion, formulated by local governments. The survey covered 310 local governments in 11 prefectures across three major Metropolitan areas. Tokyo had a large number of local governments formulating local plans and implementing various policies, with differences observed between cities and wards. "Branding of agricultural products" was one policy independently formulated, while "Promotion of agricultural cooperation between rural and urban areas" was not adopted by any local government.

Seiji Tange, Keisuke Sakamoto, Takahiro Yamazaki, Akiko Iida, Makoto Yokohari · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Japan

This 2021 study analyzed 13 municipalities in regional (non-metropolitan) Japan that operate the production green space (seisan ryokuchi) system, examining how changing perceptions of the value of farmland within urbanization-promotion areas led to expanded designation of production green space. It found that rising tax burdens on farmland in urbanization-promotion areas triggered the spread of production green space designation even in regional cities. It also found that, beyond this economic factor, the 2015 enactment of the Basic Act for the Promotion of Urban Agriculture prompted a movement to assign farmland new roles and values—such as land for disaster-prevention cooperation and sites for food and farming experience—which further contributed to the expansion of designation.

Shingo YOSHIDA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

Against a backdrop in which revision of the Productive Green Land Act and a new law for leasing urban farmland enabled existing farmers to expand and new entrants to begin farming in metropolitan areas, this study used survey data from 317 farms in cities of the Tokyo metropolitan area, plus semi-structured interviews at two fruit farms in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, to examine the significance and characteristics of introducing regular employees on peri-urban farms. The survey showed that the number of regular employees varied by farm developmental stage, distinguishing farms with only one employee from those with two or more in terms of management capability and social networking; interviews indicated that even among similarly sized farms, differences in farm objectives and family-management thinking affected the presumed role of regular employees and future human resource plans.

· 農林水産省（2021年5月策定） · Japan

MAFF's 2021 strategy for a sustainable food system, setting 2050 KPIs including a 50% cut in chemical pesticide use (risk-weighted), a 30% cut in chemical fertiliser use, and expanding organic farming to one million hectares — 25% of Japan's cultivated land.

· 農林水産省ほか（2021年3月決定、掲載: 厚生労働省） · Japan

The national plan under the Basic Act on Shokuiku for FY2021-2025, with three priorities (lifelong health, sustainable food, the 'new normal' and digitalisation) and 24 indicators, including expanding hands-on agriculture, forestry and fishery experience.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 · Japan

Certifications under the Urban Farmland Leasing Facilitation Act for FY2020 — the early-period tally, needed to see the trajectory either side of the 2022 productive-green-land deadline.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省（みどりの食料システム戦略本部） · Japan

The official portal for MAFF's 'Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems, MeaDRI' (Midori Strategy), decided May 12, 2021. It aims to reconcile productivity growth with sustainability in Japan's food and agriculture sector through innovation, targeting development of key technologies by 2040 and full social implementation by 2050. Interim 2030 KPI targets were decided June 21, 2022.

星野高徳 · 社会経済史学 87巻2号 · Japan

This paper, published in Socio-Economic History vol. 87 no. 2 (2021), examines the transformation of postwar Japan's human-waste (night soil) treatment policy, addressing the coexistence of persistent unsanitary disposal methods and the advance of sewage treatment.

Yoshida S. · Land 9(9):315 · Japan

Using a nationwide agricultural land-parcel GIS database for the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas, the study analyzed the synergistic effects of distance from cities and urban sprawl on farmland-parcel size and diversified farm activities such as direct marketing, farming experience, and environmentally friendly practices, via OLS and Poisson regression.

日本経済新聞 · 日本経済新聞（Nikkei） · Japan

A Nikkei report on Nomura Real Estate partnering with JA Setagaya-Meguro to launch, in November 2020, a monthly subscription 'urban experience farm' for home gardening on over 2,000 sqm of productive green land in Setagaya. With about 200 plots of 3.6 sqm where residents and citizens take part from planting to harvest, it highlights how supported rental farming links the preservation of shrinking urban farmland with citizen participation in agriculture.

Tsuge Kazuki, Chen Ruikun, Yoshioka Yosuke, Motoki Satoru · The Horticulture Journal, 89(1): 12-21 · Japan

Using phenotypic traits and 24 SSR markers, this study assessed the genetic and phenotypic diversity of 'norabona', a traditional Brassica napus leaf-and-stem vegetable of the Kanto region, documenting diversity within this Japanese landrace.

Shirasawa Kenta, Hirakawa Hideki, Fukino Nobuko, Kitashiba Hiroyasu, Isobe Sachiko · DNA Research, 27(2): dsaa010 · Japan

The genome of 'Sakurajima Daikon', a giant-rooted traditional Japanese radish from Kagoshima, was sequenced and analyzed using long reads, providing a genomic foundation for trait studies and conservation of this landrace.

Onaka K. · 農業問題研究 (Journal of Rural Issues) · Japan

Critically reviews research on general firms' entry into agriculture amid farmland deregulation in Japan, discussing the rising number of entrant companies, regional disparities, and the development and challenges of corporate farm management.

Toyoda M., Yokota Y., Barnes M., Kaneko M. · HortTechnology · Japan

Real-office study in Japan showing that intentional contact with a small desk plant reduces office workers' psychological and physiological stress, supporting planting and gardening interventions in the workplace.