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.

Kenjiro MATSUURA, Hana Yamaguchi, Maya HAIJIMA, Keibi KA, Toshiya HIROE · AIJ Journal of Technology and Design · Japan

This action research reports on the Nishi-Chiba Urban Farming (NUF) project, a community garden spanning public and private land on both sides of sidewalks. Findings suggest that considering multiple sites and starting small before gradual expansion is effective, and early relationship-building facilitated collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Local residents positively evaluated NUF, with participants valuing agricultural learning, community engagement, and social interaction.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 農村政策部 都市農村交流課 · Japan

MAFF's compendium on noufuku renkei (agriculture-welfare linkage): its current state, policies and cases. Defines it as work that builds confidence and purpose for people with disabilities through agriculture, and documents its widening scope to older people, those in economic hardship, people experiencing social withdrawal, and offender rehabilitation. Includes farm-workforce trends, disability population and employment figures, and cases of welfare providers entering farming.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 大臣官房 新事業・食品産業部 外食・食文化課 · Japan

A portal page from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) that links to yearly estimates (from FY2008 onward) of annual food waste generation and food recycling implementation rates. It explains the estimation method — combining mandatory reports from businesses generating 100+ tonnes/year with estimates for smaller businesses — and links to each fiscal year's detailed PDF or e-Stat data.

環境省 · 環境省 環境再生・資源循環局 廃棄物適正処理推進課 · Japan

Japan's Ministry of the Environment survey results, published March 27, 2026, on FY2024 nationwide municipal solid waste generation and disposal. Total waste generation was 38.11 million tonnes (down 2.2% year on year), the recycling rate was 19.3%, and final disposal volume was 3.06 million tonnes. The number of incineration facilities fell to 991, while those with power generation equipment rose to 415, generating 10,448 GWh in total.

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.

国土交通省都市局 · 国土交通省 都市局 都市計画課・公園緑地・景観課 · Japan

MLIT's Urban Bureau guide (April 2026 edition) explains the Productive Green Zone and Special Productive Green Zone systems and the municipal designation procedure. Productive Green Zones require at least 500 m² of urbanization-area farmland (reducible to 300 m² by local ordinance); as of 31 December 2025, 52,955 zones covering 10,613 ha were designated nationwide. Special Productive Green Zone designation must occur before the 30-year mark from the original zoning notice; once designated, the earliest date an owner can request a buyout is deferred by 10 years, renewable repeatedly with owner consent. In the three major metropolitan areas, parcels not redesignated shift to residential-land property taxation via a phased relief schedule (0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8 of the tax base increase in years one through four).

東京都都市整備局 · 東京都都市整備局 · Japan

This official page from the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Urban Development (last updated May 26, 2026) explains Tokyo's productive green zone (seisan ryokuchi) system: designation requires a plot of at least 500 sqm (reducible to 300 sqm by municipal ordinance, with contiguous plots eligible if each is at least 100 sqm), imposes a 30-year farming obligation, and grants tax benefits (agricultural-rate property tax and inheritance tax deferral). It also explains that because zones designated in 1992 under the revised law reached the 30-year mark in 2022, the "specified productive green zone" system (created by a 2017 law amendment) allows landowners to extend the tax benefits and buyback-request window by another 10 years.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

This Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) page is an index of PowerPoint-format reference materials on Japan's city planning system, organized by topic — planning law and structure, land-use planning (including the urbanization-promotion/control-area division and district plans), urban facility planning, urban greening (including farmland conservation), development permits, and location optimization. Details of specific systems, including the urbanization area/control area division, reside in the linked documents rather than on the page itself.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

This MLIT page indexes data resources on urban farmland in Japan — current farmland area (including area within urbanization-promotion zones and productive green space), the list of designated cities in the three major metropolitan areas subject to special urban farmland rules, the status of productive-green-space designations, area trends over time, and designation status of 'specified' productive green space, most updated as of end-December Reiwa 7 (2025). The specific figures themselves reside in the linked source documents, not on this index page.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農村振興局農村政策部農村計画課都市農業室 · Japan

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) organizes urban agriculture's roles into six functions: fresh produce supply, farming-experience/exchange opportunities, disaster-prevention open space, green/landscape space, national land and environmental conservation, and food/agricultural education. In a survey of urban residents, about 50% recognized urban farms' role in supplying fresh produce and about 60% expressed interest in buying local produce, while only about 30% saw urban farms as a place for farming experience or exchange. 'Disaster cooperation farmland' — an arrangement re-recognized after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake — involves municipalities signing voluntary agreements with farmers to use urban farmland as evacuation space or temporary-housing sites during disasters.

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.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This MAFF page explains that community gardens (shimin nouen) in Japan can be established by municipalities, agricultural cooperatives, landowning farmers, or non-landowning entities such as companies and NPOs, under three legal frameworks: the Community Garden Development Promotion Act, the Specified Farmland Lease Act, and the Urban Farmland Lease Act. It is primarily procedural guidance for prospective operators, with a FY2026 explanatory pamphlet available.

台東区 · 台東区 · Japan

Taito Ward partners with Daimaru Matsuzakaya and Local Food Cycling to sell subsidized home compost containers and run collection events for circular food-waste use. Over the one-year period from December 2024 to November 2025, the ward reports about 5.4 tons of food waste reduction and about 2.6 tons of CO2 reduction.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 都市局公園緑地・景観課 · Japan

This MLIT Urban Bureau page introduces rooftop and wall greening promotion measures implemented annually since fiscal 2000. As of the end of March 2008, rooftop greening in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki government district reached about 14,500 sqm (roughly 55 tennis courts), equivalent to about 1.5% of all rooftop-type greened area in Tokyo. It notes a rooftop garden was open to the public until August 19, 2021, after which it was scheduled for removal due to waterproofing layer repair work.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) page explains Japan's key laws on citizen farms. The Act on Special Measures Concerning the Lending of Specified Farmland, enacted in 1989, created Farmland Act exceptions for short-term lending of small subdivided plots, and a 2005 amendment allowed entities other than local governments and agricultural cooperatives to open citizen farms. The Act on Promotion of Citizen Farm Development, enacted in 1990, promotes farms equipped with facilities such as tool sheds and rest areas, while the 2018 Act on Facilitation of Lending of Urban Farmland makes it easier to lease urban farmland (productive green land) for citizen farms.

東京都産業労働局 · 東京都産業労働局 · Japan

The official page of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs. The division describes its role as promoting production and infrastructure development in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to raise profitability, while also providing spaces for education and recreation and contributing to countermeasures against global warming; the page links to related policies, press releases, and statistics for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

Shokuiku (food and nutrition education) is positioned as "the foundation for living, underlying intellectual, moral, and physical education," aiming to help citizens cultivate lifelong health and rich humanity. The Basic Act on Shokuiku was amended on May 27, 2026, and the 5th Basic Plan for the Promotion of Shokuiku was decided on June 24, 2026. MAFF operates a public-private food education platform, an award system for exemplary food-education organizations, and a national Shokuiku Month campaign, among other initiatives.

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.

· 日本建築学会計画系論文集 90巻832号 pp.1219-1230 · Japan

A paper clarifying the value of community gardens created on vacant land and the factors that generate that value; focusing on intergenerational exchange and collaborative activity, it analyzes the effects of reusing vacant spaces in complexes and neighborhoods on local community.

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.

Takahashi Y., Yoshida T., Johnson B.A., Shigeto S., Yamagata Y. · Sustainability Science (Springer) · Japan

Uses structural equation modeling on national survey and geospatial data to demonstrate the relationship between urban-to-rural migrants' quality of life and natural capital (farmland, greenspace), providing evidence for the effectiveness of rural in-migration policy.

華奈 中塚, 基 小林 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper clarifies the effectiveness and challenges of JA-led agricultural experience farms, using JA Kitakawachi as a case study. It extracts elements for JA to support farmers and manage operations, aiming to revitalize local urban agriculture and maintain urban farmland by sharing it with residents as a common resource. The study suggests involving diverse stakeholders in managing experience farms for joint land use and sustainable development.