In Japan, the harvest season has begun, but not in the fields—instead, it’s underground.
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Otemachi Nomura Building, where rice is grown underground |
The entire two basement levels of the Otemachi Nomura building in Tokyo’s commercial center have been transformed into a rice cultivation area—a garden in the heart of one of the world’s most densely populated cities.
Although grown indoors, the rice plants produce heavy ears of grain.
The idea of cultivating rice in this modest 30 square meter garden originated from the human resources company Pasona, aiming to encourage urban youth to engage in agriculture.
The yield from this first harvest is a modest 60 kilograms of rice, but cultivating rice underground opens up new possibilities for farming in Japan, including the potential to grow fruits and various other crops.
Mr. Taichi Sakaiya, a former Minister of Economic Planning in Japan, stated, “Our society needs many more agricultural products cultivated underground like this. Although their prices may be 100 times higher, they will undoubtedly be accepted by the market.”
Following the underground planting initiative, Pasona is also expanding its research into hydroponic rice cultivation in greenhouses, aiming to benefit farmers amidst increasingly severe weather patterns caused by global climate change.
