Research & reports

川崎市 · 川崎市 農業振興計画 · Japan

Draft outline of Kawasaki's agricultural promotion plan showing over 120,000 sqm of citizen farms, Farmers Club experiences and local-food promotion via "Kawasaki Sodachi" through municipality-JA collaboration.

Mitsuhito HOSAKA, Mitsuyo UEMATSU, Hironori Yagi · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Japan

A 2026 qualitative longitudinal case study interviewed nine farmers in Tokyo who use real-time image sharing (RTIS) for direct-sales marketing, assessing their information resources, market orientation, and firm performance before and after adopting RTIS. It finds that RTIS use helps farmers accumulate information resources and subsequently adopt a more market-oriented approach, with shipping efficiency improving especially among farmers who initially had limited information resources but some degree of market orientation. Farmers also developed process innovation integrating information resources and market orientation, and those who adopted process innovation after RTIS implementation saw improved farm stand sales through optimized shipping.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 大臣官房 新事業・食品産業部 · Japan

MAFF's FY2024 estimate of food waste generation and food-recycling implementation rates across Japan's food industry. Total annual generation was 14.634 million tonnes (up 2.6% year on year), with an overall recycling implementation rate of 91% (98% for manufacturing, 63% wholesale, 65% retail, 35% food service). By end use, 76% of recycled material became animal feed and 14% became fertilizer.

国税庁 · 国税庁 · Japan

For inheritance and gift tax purposes, Japan's National Tax Agency values 'productive green space' land as the ordinary land valuation minus a set discount rate. For productive green space not yet eligible for a buy-back request, the discount rises with the time remaining until eligibility — from 10% at five years or less up to 35% for more than 25 up to 30 years. Land that has already had a buy-back request submitted, or is eligible to, gets a flat 5% discount.

三鷹市 · 三鷹市 · Japan

Mitaka City's greening subsidy covers up to half the actual cost of rooftop greening work, capped at 20,000 yen per square meter (with a combined cap of 1 million yen for rooftop and wall greening together). Wall greening is subsidized up to 10,000 yen per square meter, and street-facing greening up to 14,000 yen per meter. Applicants must obtain approval before starting work, and sites that received the subsidy within the past five years are ineligible.

株式会社アグリメディア · 株式会社アグリメディア · Japan

The official site of 'Sharebatake', a members-only rental farm plot service operated by AGRIMEDIA Co., Ltd. Seeds, seedlings, fertilizer, and tools are provided on-site with experienced advisors on hand, letting members show up 'empty-handed'. It operates nationwide across regions including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka, with about 118 farm sites and roughly 15,138 plots as of end of July 2026.

内閣府 · 内閣府 · Japan

A Cabinet Office page describing the work of the single nationwide 'designated utilisation organisation' appointed by the Prime Minister under Japan's Dormant Deposits Utilisation Act (Act No. 101 of 2016). The Japan Network for Public Interest Activities (JANPIA) was designated on 11 January 2019 and must draw up an annual business plan for Cabinet Office approval, then select, supervise, inspect and evaluate the intermediary distribution organisations. The page carries associated documents dated 28 December 2023 and 30 March 2026.

内閣府 · 内閣府 · Japan

An explanatory deck on Japan's dormant deposits scheme published by the Cabinet Office in July 2026. Dormant deposits are accounts untouched for ten years or more; the enabling act passed as a member's bill in December 2016 and grant-making began in fiscal 2019, with activity-support organisations and equity investment added from 2024 under the June 2023 amendment. Dormant deposits transferred rose from ¥137.4 billion in FY2021 to ¥187.1 billion in FY2025, repayments to depositors rose from ¥25.2 billion to ¥58.7 billion over the same period, and transfers to the designated utilisation organisation ranged from ¥8.7 billion to ¥7.4 billion. As of the end of April 2026, 373 intermediary distribution organisations and 1,550 executing organisations had taken part, with an average grant of ¥154 million per project at the intermediary level and ¥16.24 million at the executing level.

Zuo J., Huang L., Minami C. · Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management · Japan

Using social identity theory and data from 226 Japanese employees, shows that perceived CSR boosts job and organizational engagement through organizational identification, moderated by the corporate volunteering climate.

東急不動産株式会社, 株式会社マイファーム · 東急不動産 プレスリリース資料 · Japan

Tokyu Fudosan launches an agriculture experience project for Branz owners in Higashimatsuyama using solar-sharing farmland, an official developer-led rental-garden initiative linking resident food education, exchange, and regional revitalization.

名古屋市 東部・緑農政課 · 名古屋市 市民農園調査・広報資料 · Japan

Nagoya outreach and survey material cataloguing municipal allotment types — Nogomi, community, partitioned and Minori farms — with plot sizes, fees and recruitment timing, showing the reality of publicly operated rental gardens.

さいたま市 · さいたま市 農業統計・振興報告書 · Japan

Saitama's annual agricultural report summarising publicly supported urban agriculture including the urban agriculture council, land-coordinator programme and 79 public/private citizen farms with supply statistics.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 統計調査 · Japan

MAFF nationwide survey of citizen farm counts, plots, area and operator-type trends, providing baseline statistics on publicly and institutionally supported urban gardening across Japan as of March 2025.

Lee Jolliffe, Moe Nakashima · · Japan

This chapter explores the use of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a model of collaborative consumption by a tea farm in Japan. The case study, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms, LLC, is a social enterprise that implements CSA principles, allowing subscribers to receive the coming year's tea harvest and symbolic ownership of a tea field section. This model is driven by socio-economic objectives and aims to build a community of tea drinkers who support the farm.

Mitsuhito HOSAKA, Mitsuyo UEMATSU, Hironori Yagi · 農村計画学会誌 · Japan

This study identified the relationship between information management and farm diversification in urban areas using quantitative analysis from the Census of Agriculture and Forestry and a multiple case analysis of seven farmers using farm management information systems (FMIS). Regression analysis revealed that farmers who diversify their businesses, especially those selling directly to consumers or food manufacturers/services, are likely to manage their business information. Multiple case analysis indicated that diversified farmers focus on searching for pesticide information and simplify the management of scheduled and actual farm work.

Takashi Shimofuji, Motoi Kusadokoro, Atsushi Chitose · Journal of Rural Problems · Japan

A case study of Welsh onion cultivation in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, used interview surveys of farm management and marketing channels in urban and remote areas to clarify how a farmer's choice of shipping destination in urban agriculture relates to cultivation size and post-harvest working hours. Urban farmers chose different marketing channels depending on cultivation size, and this flexibility produced differences in post-harvest work systems and in work efficiency measured as shipping quantity per work hour, whereas in remote areas cooperative shipping dominated, leaving fewer shipping options and smaller efficiency disparities among farmers. Urban agriculture's access to diverse shipping destinations let farmers select options based on production scale, which raised work efficiency for large-scale farmers in particular.

· 農林水産省・経済産業省 · Japan

Statistics on projects certified under the agriculture-commerce-industry collaboration scheme, tallied by region (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku-Shikoku, Kyushu, Okinawa) — showing where collaborations between small businesses and primary producers are actually forming.

消費者庁 · 消費者庁（農林水産省・環境省と連携） · Japan

Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency published its FY2023 food loss estimate on June 27, 2025. Total food loss was 4.64 million tonnes, down from 4.72 million tonnes the prior year, split between 2.31 million tonnes from businesses and 2.33 million tonnes from households.

国税庁 · 国税庁 · Japan

According to Japan's National Tax Agency, when a qualifying heir inherits farmland from a deceased person who had been farming it and continues farming (or leases it under a designated arrangement), payment of the portion of inheritance tax corresponding to the value of the land above its agricultural investment value is deferred. This deferred tax is forgiven if the farming heir dies while still farming, among other conditions. Designated leasing arrangements include those under the Act on Facilitation of Leasing Urban Agricultural Land.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

This press release, published by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on March 18, 2025, reports the results of the 2025 official land price survey covering 26,000 points nationwide. The national average for all uses, residential land, and commercial land rose for the fourth consecutive year, with the rate of increase widening. Among the three major metropolitan areas, Tokyo and Osaka saw continued acceleration while Nagoya's increase slightly narrowed; regional areas rose for a fourth straight year, though the rate slightly narrowed in the four major regional cities (Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima, Fukuoka).

石井健太朗 · 大和不動産鑑定株式会社（DREA REPORT） · Japan

Published in April 2025 by Kentaro Ishii of Daiwa Real Estate Appraisal Co.'s Research & Marketing Department, this report analyzes Japan's 2025 official land price survey (as of January 1, 2025), based on MLIT data. It shows the national all-use average rose for a fourth consecutive year with an accelerating rate (+2.1% in 2025), driven by steady housing demand and strong retail/hotel demand in commercial areas. The residential land price increase was highest in Furano, Hokkaido, and the commercial increase was highest in Chitose, Hokkaido (site of semiconductor plant investment); among prefectural capitals, Naha posted the largest residential gain (+5.9%) and Saga the largest commercial gain (+9.0%).

Shigetomi Y., Ishigami A., Long Y., Chapman A. · Nature Communications, 15:8987 · Japan

Demonstrates that per-capita household food waste in Japan rises with the age of the household head, reaching roughly three times higher for those 70+ than for those under 30, with correspondingly large differences in food-waste-related greenhouse gas emissions. It highlights the need for age-targeted food-loss reduction strategies in an ageing society.

· 農福連携等推進会議（内閣官房） · Japan

Government vision (2019, revised 2024) promoting noufuku—agriculture-welfare collaboration enabling people with disabilities to participate in society through farming—as national policy, covering awareness, training, facility support, and market expansion via certification.

· 都市計画報告集 23巻3号 pp.429- · Japan

A report analyzing the potential and operational challenges of community gardens run or entered by private companies, discussing sustainable management models for company-partnered citizen gardens in housing complexes and neighborhoods and their contribution to community formation.

新田 直人, 谷口 守 · 土木学会論文集 80巻11号 論文ID:23-00303 · Japan

Through multiple regression on fees at growing corporate-run kitchen gardens in metropolitan areas, this paper shows pricing reflects urban land-use factors such as rail access, distance from city center, and surrounding population, discussing expansion potential for private rooftop and non-farmland farms.