Research & reports

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

Under the Urban Renaissance Act, municipalities and owners of low-/under-used land can agree to develop and manage it temporarily as plazas, community gardens and greenery — part of Japan's response to urban 'sponging'.

平江 良成, 小泉 秀樹, 後藤 智香子 · 都市計画報告集 17巻2号 pp.195-201 · Japan

With an author from Tokyu Corporation, this interview-based study analyzes how private firms participate in suburban housing-area regeneration and the conditions required, arguing that developers must engage through composite services including community facilities and new business formats.

国土交通省 都市局, 八王子市「東京クラインガルテン」検討協議会 · 国土交通省 都市と緑・農が共生するまちづくりに関する調査 · Japan

Using Hachioji as a case, this MLIT report examines leveraging private vitality for vacant homes, farmland, and green space, including site visits and interviews on corporate kitchen gardens and business simulations for rental gardens around housing areas and danchi.

藤井 至, 稲葉 修武, 藤田 武弘 · 農業市場研究 27巻1号 pp.12- · Japan

Based on hearings with all Nerima experience-farm operators and user surveys, this paper analyzes how publicly subsidised experience farms support farm management and community exchange, empirically showing effects on profitability, successors and local understanding.

名古屋市 · 名古屋市 農業振興基本方針 · Japan

Nagoya's basic urban agriculture policy positioning publicly operated citizen farms — Nogomi, community and Minori gardens — and resident-farmer connections as core pillars of municipal support.

特定非営利活動法人 Co.to.hana, 金田 康孝 · 国土交通省 都市と農・緑が共生するまちづくりに関する調査（平成29年度） · Japan (Osaka)

Co.to.hana's second-year MLIT study codifying how to reproduce Minna-no-uen's effects — activity data analysis since 2011, international comparables, intermediary-organisation needs, trial social-impact metrics, published as this report and at minnanouen.jp/research.

Kimisato Oda, Christoph Rupprecht, Kazuaki Tsuchiya, Steven R. McGreevy · Sustainability · Japan (Kyoto)

A study in Kyoto City, Japan, examined agricultural land use from 2007–2017 to assess urban agriculture as a sustainability strategy for shrinking cities. Analysis revealed a 10% decline (209 ha) in agricultural land use over ten years, with main post-agricultural uses being residential (40%) and vacant land (28%). The findings indicate that Kyoto City is not currently positioned to benefit from population decline through localized food production.

肇 石原, Hajime Ishihara · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper compared urban agriculture promotion basic plans formulated by six prefectures, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Aichi, as of October 2017. The analysis revealed policy challenges concerning the scope of inheritance tax deferment, the lending and borrowing of agricultural land in urbanization promotion areas, and the participation of non-farmers in agriculture. It concluded that the national government urgently needs to address these issues, and local governments should propose systems tailored to local conditions.

Ryo Kawabe, Hiroshi Sakazume · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Nagakute City)

This paper analyzes the importance of social capital in the sixth industrialization of urban agricultural areas, using a case study from Nagakute-cho (now Nagakute City), Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The study found that the sixth industry is an efficient strategy for managing and demonstrating the multiple functions of urban agriculture, farm villages, and agriculture itself, with social capital being a crucial driving force. Nagakute City's initiatives, based on the "Countryside Valley Initiative," were successful, leading to the emergence of an integrated form of social capital combining government-led bonding with bridging among various local residents.

Mattia Scarpellino · · Japan (Tokyo)

This architectural design thesis proposes a redesign of a peripheral area of Tokyo, specifically Nishi-Tokyo, which exhibits both urban and rural characteristics. The study explored how to integrate agri-food production activities in a large metropolitan suburb, its potential social role, and the dynamics generated in relation to contemporary living. Through literature review on living, urbanization, functional nomadism, and digitalization, analysis of urban agriculture aspects focusing on community gardens, and participation in a Tokyo workshop, design scenarios were simulated.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・430AC0000000068） · Japan

The 2018 act that lets productive green land be leased to a third party without terminating the owner's inheritance-tax deferral. The prospective tenant files a cultivation plan certified by the mayor, giving ageing owners an exit other than selling: handing the plot to a new farmer or a community-garden operator.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

MLIT's national survey of rooftop and wall greening construction results for FY2017, aimed at mitigating the urban heat island effect and lowering urban carbon emissions, recorded about 23.1 hectares of new rooftop greening (roughly five Tokyo Domes) and 5.5 hectares of new wall greening that year, bringing cumulative totals since FY2000 to about 498 hectares of rooftop greening and 90 hectares of wall greening. Average project area was 261 m2, with a growing trend toward large-scale mixed-use projects.

内閣府地方創生推進事務局 · 内閣府 地方創生推進事務局 · Japan

A November 2018 briefing prepared by the Cabinet Office's Regional Revitalisation Secretariat. The Regional Revitalisation Promotion Grant supports self-directed, pioneering work by local authorities, requiring KPIs and a PDCA cycle and targeting projects that cut across traditional departmental silos. Its initial budget was ¥100 billion a year (¥200 billion on a project-cost basis) in each of fiscal 2016, 2017 and 2018, alongside supplementary grants such as ¥100 billion for acceleration in FY2015 and ¥90 billion for base development in FY2016. Under the Regional Revitalisation Act (Act No. 24 of 2005) that underpins it, 5,796 regional revitalisation plans had been approved by this point.

内閣府地方創生推進事務局 · 内閣府 地方創生推進事務局 · Japan

An April 2018 guideline from the Cabinet Office's Regional Revitalisation Secretariat on designing and improving projects funded by the Regional Revitalisation Promotion Grant. The general part sets out the grant's aims and six 'pioneering elements', explains what a KPI is, from which angles to set one and the pitfalls to avoid, then walks through the project cycle stage by stage under Plan-Do-Check-Action. The sector-specific part covers local innovation, agriculture-forestry-fisheries, tourism, migration to the regions, working-style reform and placemaking, each with worked examples of KPIs.

食都神戸推進チーム（神戸市） · 食都神戸・Gastropolis Kobe（公式サイト） · Japan

An official document explaining the basic concept of the Gastropolis Kobe 2020 vision that Kobe City announced in 2015. It frames how Kobe—a city of 1.5 million with farmland in its Kita and Nishi wards and fishing grounds along its coast—rebuilds its urban brand around food, advancing local consumption, urban agriculture and rural exchange.

· 国土交通省都市局 · Japan

National materials on the Special Productive Greenland system created by the 2017 Productive Greenland Law amendment to address the '2022 problem,' extending buy-out timing and tax benefits by ten-year renewable periods; about 89% (8,282 ha) had been designated as of end-2022.

· 参議院常任委員会調査室『立法と調査』No.394 · Japan

Legislative analysis by the House of Councillors research office, organizing the regulatory framework for urban farmland (productive greenland, taxation, leasing) and examining the rationale and issues behind the 2018 lease law in light of the 2022 problem.

Uchiyama Y., Fujihira Y., Matsuoka H., Kohsaka R. · Journal of Ethnic Foods · Japan

Analyzes definitions, history, and regional ties of traditional Japanese vegetables (e.g., Kyo, Kaga), using Kaga and Noto cases to show how ambiguous quality standards shape branding and brand management.

特定非営利活動法人 Co.to.hana, 金田 康孝, 西川 亮 · 国土交通省 都市と農・緑が共生するまちづくりに関する調査（平成28年度） · Japan (Osaka)

First-year MLIT-commissioned study by Co.to.hana validating usefulness and replicability of community farms on urban unused land, using Kitakagaya Minna-no-uen as the model — surveys, environmental monitoring, stakeholder interviews and an expert panel producing a start guide and dissemination roadmap.

国土交通省都市局 · 国土交通省都市局 · Japan

A MLIT survey report on using vacant urban land as community gardens, taking Kitakagaya's 'Minna no Uen' in Osaka as a key case and analyzing its operation and effects through user surveys, stakeholder interviews and neighborhood research.

Sioen G., Sekiyama M., Terada T., Yokohari M. · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Tokyo, Japan

Quantifying vegetable output from urban farmland in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, the study finds a weight-based self-sufficiency rate of just 6.18% and an aggregate nutritional self-sufficiency of about 2.86%, showing urban agriculture covers only a tiny fraction of local food and nutrition needs.

Christoph Rupprecht · Land · Japan

This study analyzed residents' perceptions, use, and management preferences for informal urban green spaces (IGS) in four major shrinking Japanese cities (Sapporo, Nagano, Kyoto, and Kitakyushu) using a large online survey of 1000 residents. Residents viewed IGS as a common element of the urban landscape, but their evaluation was mixed. Recreation and urban agriculture were preferred over redevelopment and non-management, and for participatory management, residents emphasized the need for city administration to mediate usage and liability, along with financial and non-financial support. Approximately 10% of residents expressed willingness to participate in management activities.

肇 石原, Hajime ISHIHARA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

Since 1990, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, has seen a decrease in agricultural land area and the number of farm households, particularly in Nagoya City and its surrounding municipalities. While the reduction in productive green space and full-time farmers was moderate, engagement in agriculture-related businesses, excluding direct sales, was not extensive. A polarization was observed between municipalities active and inactive in designating productive green spaces, posing a challenge for future land use planning.

肇 石原, Hajime ISHIHARA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study examined changes in urban agriculture in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, since 1990, finding a weakening of the agricultural management base. While the decline in productive green space and full-time farmers was limited, engagement in agriculture-related businesses, excluding direct sales, was not widespread. The preservation of productive green spaces in some cities remains a challenge for future land use planning.

肇 石原, Hajime ISHIHARA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

Since 1990, the weakening of agricultural management foundations has been observed in urban areas of Nara Prefecture, though the decrease in productive green space and the number of full-time farmers remained at a certain level. Rice cultivation was the main crop in many areas, and engagement in agriculture-related businesses, apart from direct sales, was not extensive. Regarding the designation of productive green spaces, many cities were reluctant during the initial designation following the revised Productive Green Space Act and also during the Heisei mergers, which is identified as a challenge for future land use planning.