Research & reports

Masahiro Nakajima · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper reviews trends in urban agriculture development and conservation in Japan, noting that urban agricultural land has been encroached upon by residential buildings due to population growth, creating mixed-use areas. While measures to promote urban agriculture are being adopted following the 2015 Basic Act, the paper emphasizes the need to highlight its food supply function. It also suggests classifying urban agriculture by different actors: urban farmers, collaborations between farmers and citizens, and citizens using urban agricultural land.

Shimpo N. · 博士論文 (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Tokyo) · Japan

Doctoral dissertation systematically analysing the historical development of urban-type gardens and agricultural activities in Japan. Traces the emergence and evolution of diverse urban agricultural spaces—allotment gardens, community gardens and the like—forming the basis of Shimpo's later books and papers.

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.

Iketani Hiroyuki · Breeding Science, 66(1): 82-89 · Japan

A review of Japan's native fruit tree genetic resources shaped by its diverse climate, summarizing the status of wild and local fruit taxa, red-listed species, and the state of conservation in genebanks and botanical gardens.

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.

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

This study analyzed changes in green space components (parks, agricultural land, forests) across Osaka Prefecture, Japan, from 1970 to 2010. While forest area decreased slightly and park area increased, the increase in park area was insufficient to offset the significant reduction in agricultural land. Consequently, the overall green space ratio in Osaka Prefecture showed a declining trend, particularly noticeable in Osaka City and its surrounding areas.

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.

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

This study analyzed changes in green space components (parks, agricultural land, forests) across Aichi Prefecture, Japan, from 1970 to 2010. While forest area decreased less significantly than agricultural land, and park area increased, the increase in park area was insufficient to offset the reduction in agricultural land. Consequently, the overall green space ratio showed a declining trend in most areas, particularly in Nagoya City and its surrounding regions.

Ryozo YANAGIDA · Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) · Japan

This study investigated the planning principles of urban formation during Hokkaido's pioneering period (Meiji and Taisho eras) by analyzing six prototypes of city formation. The research identified seven planning principles, including the selection of town sites from a bird's-eye view, the use of a basic axis and point for area space formation, the existence of rural-urban planning, and the importance of riverports or railway stations as cardinal points. Other principles involved the scale of urban areas (600-900 ken), the placement of hills as mental footholds, and the adoption of a grid pattern for town division.

国土交通省都市局 · 国土交通省 都市局 · Japan

This MLIT Urban Bureau document explains 2016-era amendments to the Productive Green Zone Act following the May 2016 cabinet decision on the Basic Plan for Promoting Urban Agriculture. It lowered the minimum area requirement for designating a Productive Green Zone from 500 m² to as low as 300 m² by municipal ordinance, allowed multiple adjacent parcels (each at least 100 m²) to be treated as one contiguous zone, and eased building restrictions within zones to permit processing facilities, direct-sale stands, and restaurants using produce grown on site.

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.

国立環境研究所 · 国立環境研究所 環境展望台 · Japan

This National Institute for Environmental Studies explainer on rooftop and wall greening (revised May 2016) cites a 1985 Chubu Electric Power experiment finding 20-30% energy savings compared to traditional sunshades (yoshizu). It reports about 413.8 hectares of rooftop greening and 68.0 hectares of wall greening installed nationwide over the 15 years from FY2000 to FY2014, with FY2014 alone contributing about 26.9 hectares of rooftop and 5.0 hectares of wall greening, though FY2009 saw about a 20% year-on-year contraction. It also notes implementation challenges such as structural load assessment, root-barrier installation, and ongoing irrigation management.

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.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・427AC0100000014） · Japan

Japan's 2015 framework law for urban agriculture, aiming at its stable continuation and the multifunctional roles it plays in the urban environment. The statutory basis for the policy reversal that recast urban farmland from 'land to be converted to housing' into 'land that ought to remain', obliging the national government to adopt a basic plan.

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.

Nishizawa T. · Advances in Horticultural Science · Japan

Reviews the status and outlook of Japan's solar- and artificial-light plant factories, covering the post-disaster and policy-driven expansion of corporate entry and the profitability challenges of commercial operation in urban food production.

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.

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.

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.

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

This study investigated the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake on Fudouson and Hippo stay-type allotment gardens in Marumori Town, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the earthquake, management entities confirmed user safety and conducted rescue operations. Post-earthquake, some users retired, but the gardens gained new users who were earthquake victims or reconstruction workers.