Research & reports

農林水産省, 国土交通省 · 農林水産省（都市農業振興基本法に基づく政府の基本計画・閣議決定） · Japan

The government's basic plan under the Urban Agriculture Promotion Act (2015). It places 'realising the diverse functions of urban agriculture' at the centre and sets three new policy directions: securing urban farmers, securing land for farming, and full-scale agricultural-promotion measures. It is the core plan underpinning municipalities' citizen farms, experience farms and farmland conservation nationwide.

HILLS LIFE（森ビル） · HILLS LIFE（森ビル運営メディア） · Japan

An article explaining Mori Building's rooftop rice-growing at Roppongi Hills and Ark Hills through its 'machi-iku' (town-based learning) philosophy. From a developer's viewpoint it discusses the meaning of resident- and worker-participation in rice planting and harvesting, and the link between rooftop greening / green infrastructure and community building.

Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan · Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan · Japan

A practitioner handbook compiled by Japan's Ministry of the Environment on Eco-DRR (Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction). It systematizes the use of ecosystems and traditional land use—forests preventing soil erosion, coastal forests attenuating tsunamis, wetlands and paddy fields providing temporary flood storage—to achieve disaster risk reduction and biodiversity conservation simultaneously, providing a policy basis for treating urban and rural farmland and greenery as protective green infrastructure.

· 都市計画報告集（日本都市計画学会）, No.15 · Japan

A study of Kashiwa's 'Kashiniwa' scheme analysing the conditions for interim use of vacant land where the city brokers between owners and citizen groups — empirical research on matching-type interim-use schemes.

岩瀬 貴也, 小泉 秀樹, 後藤 智香子 · 都市計画論文集 51巻3号 pp.277-284 · Japan

Studying public-private community gardens in Koto Ward through interviews with the ward, developers, and participant surveys, this paper identifies their potential as models for area-contribution development burden systems in new development and challenges to sustaining activities.

Kento Takano, Noriko Akita · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Japan

This study clarified requirements for community-based allotment gardens as a land use management strategy in urbanization control areas in Japan. A questionnaire survey of metropolitan area municipalities revealed over 60% established allotment gardens in these areas to utilize farmland. An interview study of "Genki Nouen" in Ushiku City, Ibaraki Prefecture, found it was proactively managed by neighborhood associations, promoting effective use of abandoned cultivated land and bamboo forest management. The study concluded that creating an environment for social capital formation is necessary for land use management by community-based allotment gardens.

Naomi Shimpo, Toru Terada, Makoto Yokohari · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Japan

This study examines the feasibility of organic material circulation from turning increasing vacant lots in suburban Japan into allotment gardens, comparing three scenarios with different degrees of gardenization. Composting experiments identified the composition of organic materials needed to produce usable compost and the amount of compost required to gardenize vacant lots, while a separate analysis determined how many households would need to cooperate in supplying organic materials under each scenario. The study found that the weight ratio of kitchen waste to pruning waste for usable compost was 3:2, and that cooperation from at least 16 households would be needed to produce enough compost to gardenize an average-sized housing lot. It concludes that the scenario limited to existing gardens on vacant lots is feasible for organic material circulation, while the other two scenarios, which assume more extensive gardenization, would require greater understanding among urbanites.

· · Japan

This account of Tokyo urban farming contrasts Brooklyn Grange, a roughly 1-hectare rooftop farm in New York that produced 23 tons of organic produce in 2014, with Taiken Noen ('hands-on farming') in Tokyo's Nerima ward, where urban residents cultivate vegetables under instruction from local farmers on about 1,300 plots across 12 farms covering roughly 5 hectares combined, a practice the text describes as continuing to grow in popularity.

KIKUCHI Toshio, TABAYASHI Akira · E-journal GEO · Japan

A case study of the Sunagawa area in Tachikawa City, in the Tokyo metropolitan fringe, analyzed the mechanism sustaining urban farming through the relationship between the siting of farm-product direct-sale stands and the commodification of rural space. Urban farming's persistence in the area depends heavily on the location of these direct-sale stands: because the stands sell directly to urban residents and are maintained to meet their needs, agricultural production continues. As a result, not only the rural landscape and agricultural land use but also the rural community itself are sustained, and as urban residents visit and buy from the stands, the rural space comes to be understood as both a production space and a consumption space.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This implementation manual from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sets out procedures and eligible expenses for programs supporting urban agriculture's functions, including welfare farms and a program for disaster-collaboration farmland. To qualify as disaster-collaboration farmland, a plot must be roughly 500 square meters or larger and located within a densely inhabited district as defined by the most recent census; the program also funds 'disaster-dual-use agricultural facilities' meant to protect residents' safety and livelihoods during emergencies such as earthquakes.

Sakurai Shin · Nippon.com · Japan

A feature on the Ginza Honey Bee Project ('Ginpachi'), a nonprofit founded in March 2006 by Tanaka Atsuo, which installed beehives on the roof of the Kami Parupu Kaikan building in central Tokyo, drawing nectar from Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace grounds within roughly a 3km radius. A decade on, the project has grown to 150 members, supplies honey products sold at the Matsuya Ginza department store and honey cocktails at nearby bars, and has inspired more than 100 urban beekeeping projects nationwide as well as projects in South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia.

社会的インパクト評価検討ワーキング・グループ · 内閣府（社会的インパクト評価検討ワーキング・グループ） · Japan

A March 2016 report by Japan's Working Group on Social Impact Evaluation. Against shrinking public resources under population decline and fiscal constraint, it aims to draw private resources into solving social problems and to grow organisations — large or small — whose purpose is creating impact. Organised in four chapters (why social impact evaluation is needed, what it is, how to do it, and the obstacles to its spread), it centres on accountability to stakeholders as the precondition for raising outside resources, with appendices and columns on logic models and theory of change, British diffusion policy, and shared measurement.

Shimpo N., Saito K. · ランドスケープ研究 (Journal of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture), 78(5):629-634 · Japan

A peer-reviewed literature study organising the historical development of 'urban agriculture' (allotment gardens, community gardens, etc.) from both planners' and users' perspectives. Argues that appropriate planning of urban gardening must incorporate both viewpoints.

· 農林水産省・国土交通省 · Japan

Government explainer of the 2015 Urban Agriculture Promotion Basic Law, setting out its purpose, principles, and the responsibilities of national and local governments, and articulating the multifunctional roles of urban agriculture.

山口 創 · 食資源教育研究センター報告（CEIS Papers）, 29: 83-88 · Japan

Through interview surveys of three cases (Komoike-dainagon bean, Harima-o garlic, Himeji-ebiimo taro), this paper analyzes the process by which local varieties become recognized regional resources and the challenges of their development.

Watanabe Y., Miyamoto M., Amemiya M., Terada T., Yokohari M. · ランドスケープ研究 77(5):713-718 · Japan

Taking the 'Jiyu Hiroba' community garden established under Kashiwa City's Kashiniwa program as a case study, the paper analyzes how the publicness of a community garden is generated and transformed, drawing on resident-drawn site plans, annual management reports, and interviews with neighborhood-association members.

河野 誠, 藤田 直子 · ランドスケープ研究 77巻5号 pp.433-436 · Japan

Analyzing user needs at corporate-run rooftop and over-track rental farms such as Toho Leo's 'Machinaka Saen', this paper characterizes high fees, convenient locations, and rich services as hallmarks of pioneering private-sector urban farm models.

国土交通省 都市局 · 国土交通省 委託調査報告書 · Japan

MLIT commissioned survey on Setagaya's productive-greenbelt designation, landscape-farmland districts, citizen farms and agricultural parks as models of urban farmland preservation and public-participation farming under public support.

環境省 · 環境省 グッドライフアワード · Japan

The official write-up of 'Kitakagaya Minna no Uen' (run by NPO Co.to.hana) as a winner of the Ministry of the Environment's 2nd Good Life Award, describing how residents and experts jointly turned vacant land into a garden fostering intergenerational exchange through farming.

Noriko Akita · AIJ Journal of Technology and Design · Japan, United States (New York City)

This research examines the institutionalization of community gardens in Japan by referencing New York City's model. New York City has 35 years of community garden management experience and an established support structure, with many gardens having individual divisions for land use. In contrast, Japan's community gardens primarily use public spaces. The study clarified the specific support contents and management conditions in New York City.

八木洋憲 · 農村計画学会誌 · Japan (Tokyo)

A 2013 empirical analysis of how location shapes demand for 'experience farms' (taiken nouen, farmer-led pay-to-participate allotments) in Tokyo, Japan, combining a user survey with small-area census statistics (Journal of Rural Planning Association 32, Special Issue, pp. 323–328). Most users lived within 2 km of the plot, and roughly 0.5% of residents within 250 m became users. Nearby competing experience farms reduced demand at more distant sites, whereas adjacent conventional allotment gardens showed no competitive relationship. For an operator this means the catchment is narrow and neighbouring facilities of the same type divide the same demand, so siting largely determines whether the operation works. The paper does not analyse fees or profit and loss.

卓也 林 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Inagi City)

This study examined the management characteristics of direct farm sales outlets and the role of agriculture in urban areas, using pear farmers in Inagi City, Tokyo, as an example. Field surveys confirmed a decrease in pear picking activities and a high ratio of direct sales and home delivery. While familiarity with agriculture has increased due to farmers' cooperation in agricultural experience learning and the establishment of many community gardens, a limitation was identified: to convey the value of urban agriculture to those with low interest, the enhancement of pear picking, allowing easy interaction with farmers on farmland, is required.

修一 舩戸 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Hino City)

This paper examined the sustainability of urban agriculture through volunteer farming initiatives in Hino City and Machida City, Tokyo. In Hino City, the "Hinojin Ennou no Kai" has provided free farming assistance since 2006, while in Machida City, the NPO "Tagayasu" has offered paid assistance since 2002. Based on these cases, the impact of collaboration between citizens and local farmers on the sustainability of urban agriculture was discussed.

元 山中 · Hosei University Repository (Hosei University) · Japan

This plan designs a small unmanned store for farmers to directly sell vegetables, aiming to revitalize declining urban agriculture by building relationships between citizens and farmers. Thinner timber is used as a construction material, contributing to forest reproduction through forest volunteer participation and timber purchase. The unit is designed to be foldable and movable, and methods for displaying vegetables suitable for each type are proposed.

Masao Makiyama, Norifumi Hosoya, Mami Inoue · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan

This study examined the regional distribution of stay-type allotment gardens (kleingartens, KGs) and their facilities, focusing on vacant facilities and future construction planning. Significant numbers of KGs and facilities were found in Nagano and Hyogo Prefectures, with Nagano having many early constructions. In fiscal year 2011, 22 KGs had vacant facilities, but this could not be solely explained by facility location density.