Japan for Sustainability

Mitsubishi Unveils 100-Volt Back-up Home Power Supply that Connects to EVs

2012-05-30T21:00:15Z

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced on March 9, 2012, that it would start selling its "MiEV power BOX," a power supply device that connects to its electric vehicles (EVs), the i-MiEV or MINICAB-MiEV models, as a dealer option from April 27.

The MiEV power BOX produces 100-volt alternating current (AC) of up to 1,500 watts from the large-capacity battery of the i-MiEV or MINICAB-MiEV EVs via their quick-charging connectors. It measures 395 by 334 by 194 millimeters, weighs 11.5 kilograms, and includes a 1.7-meter-long connecting cable and a 100-volt output socket.

The device is primarily designed to supply power to various home electric appliances during power outages or other emergencies. The i-MiEV's full battery charge capacity of 16 kilowatt-hours is enough to provide continuous power of 1,500 watts for between five and six hours, equivalent to the daily electricity needs of an average Japanese home.

Mitsubishi Motors, Others Announce Devices to Convert EV Battery Power for Home Use (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/05/31 06:00:15 AM

City of Kitakyushu Starts Test of Tidal Power Generation in Kammon Straits

2012-05-29T21:00:15Z

The City of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, southern Japan, began a full-scale trial of tidal power generation at Nikka Whisky Distilling Co.'s Moji Factory on March 17, 2012. An experimental tidal power generator has been set up next to the jetty at Moji Factory, where it faces the Kammon Straits, one of the fastest tidal currents in Japan. The test aims to verify power generation capacity and to confirm such issues as the cost and maintenance frequency required.

Tidal power is a natural source of energy that works by rotating propellers with the tidal current to generate power using the same mechanism as wind power generation. The city of Kitakyushu conducted a survey of the Kammon Straits in FY2010 with subsidies from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as part of a project to utilize local resources. After collecting data on the tidal speed of the Kammon Straits, conducting basic studies on laws and regulations, and selecting the site for the trial, the city concluded that the aforementioned site was most suitable for the test, despite the tidal speed being relatively slow.

In fiscal 2011, the city built a system for the test together with Hiraki Laboratory of the Kyushu Institute of Technology and Kyushu Techno Research Inc., a company conducting environment/materials-related businesses. The trial test is currently being conducted with the cooperation of Nikka Whisky Distilling Co.

Japanese Firm Begins Development of Tidal Power Generation System (Related JFS article)
Offshore Wind Farm Verification Project Off Kitakyushu City Begins (Related JFS article)
OECD Selects Japan's Kitakyushu as First Model City for Green Growth in Asia (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/05/30 06:00:15 AM

[Newsletter] Unique Community Farm Management in Kamiina District Shifting Focus from Owning to Using Farms

2012-05-29T05:13:20Z

JFS Newsletter No.116 (April 2012)
"Initiatives and Achievements of Local Governments in Japan" (No. 38)

Farming communities in Japan have in recent years been facing many difficulties, such as decreases in the area of farms and the number of farmers, an increase in the area of abandoned farmland, and the rapidly rising average age of farmers. For this reason, agriculture -- an industry that is critical for human life -- is risking collapse. The total area of farmland has continued to decline from a peak of 6.09 million hectares in 1961 to 4.56 million hectares in 2011, about a 30-percent reduction over the last 50 years. Meanwhile, the total area of abandoned farmland has increased since 1985, reaching 400,000 hectares in 2010.

About two-thirds of Japan's land is mountainous, and farmland accounts for only 12 percent of the area of the whole country. Thus, Japanese farming is typically small in scale and limited to mostly small parcels of land. As of 2011, the average size of a commercial farm was about two hectares, much smaller than in the United States or Australia. In order to support the development of the nation's agricultural industry, integrated farm management and collective crop production are increasingly seen as important.

Recently, a community farming system has been introduced to many farming communities throughout Japan. In this system, communities -- instead of individual farmers -- guide the conservation of farmlands and produce agricultural products in an integrated manner. This article will introduce the efforts of communities in the Kamiina district (in Nagano Prefecture), which has been using this system for more than 30 years to manage its farmland in a unique way.

Agriculture in Kamiina

Kamiina is in an area called the Ina Valley, which commands views of the Central Japan Alps to the west and the South Japan Alps to the east, and is located in the Ina Basin at an altitude of around 600 meters. Kamiina's total area is 1,348 square kilometers, and its population was about 190,000 as of April 1, 2011. The area has eight municipalities: the cities of Ina and Komagane; the towns of Tatsuno, Minowa, and Iijima; and the villages of Minami Minowa, Nakagawa and Miyada.

JA Kamiina (English)

Kamiina, located in the southern part of Nagano Prefecture, has an inland climate that is characterized by a sunny and dry climate in winter and extreme differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures in summer. Through the central part of Ina Valley, the Tenryu River, which takes its water from Lake Suwa, flows from north to south, and alluvial fans and terraces are found on both its shores. Kamiina has long been engaged in rice farming using these landforms.

Kamiina -- where sericulture (silk farming) once thrived -- is well known for its contribution to developing Japan's silk industry from the Taisho era to the early Showa era (around the 1910s and 1920s). At that time, there were fields of mulberry (feed for silkworms) all over the region, but they gradually disappeared, as the silk industry declined due to a sharp drop in the price of raw silk in the Great Depression. After World War II, manufacturing industries (electric appliances, precision machinery, etc.) replaced sericulture in this region, and the farm workforce was absorbed into the factory workforce.

This is how a majority of people in this region became part-time farmers, working at an industrial plant on weekdays and farming on weekends. Moreover, around the 1970s, Japan launched an agricultural structure improvement project, and Nagano Prefecture started a land consolidation project. As a result, paddy fields were sectioned into 30-ares areas, where large farm machines were introduced, facilitating efficient management of paddy fields. Farmers then became able to produce rice even on the basis of weekend farming.

Miyada Method

However, as rice field integration and farming mechanization were promoted, the overproduction of rice became a serious problem in Japan. In response, the nation adopted a "rice acreage reduction policy" in 1970, under which farmers were forced to reduce their rice-cropping acreage every year to limit the annual supply of rice. In the late 1970s, the government adopted a paddy-field use rearrangement policy, forcing farmers to drastically change their production from rice to other crops. For weekend farmers, abandonment of rice production meant giving up farming itself. The village of Miyada, in one of the municipalities of Kamiina, has many small-scale part-time farmers whose own total farming area is around 70 ares. Therefore, this village was particularly distressed about how to respond to the government's non-rice crop production policy.

The municipality of Miyada viewed the rice acreage reduction policy as part of a policy on agricultural structure, and continued studies on how the farming industry should be promoted in the village, in cooperation with the local agricultural cooperative and farmers. One of the suggestions from the studies was a "mutual assistance" system to more effectively use farmland and encourage responsible farmers to integrate their land use. With the nation's non-rice crop production incentives and a farmers' mutual assistance fund as financial capital, this system was aimed at guaranteeing 80 percent of profits gained by producing rice on the land to landowners, in order to systematically conduct integrated non-rice crop production. This system was implemented from 1978 to 1980.

In 1981, the village established a scheme to use all the village's available land, aiming to realize "one farm in one region." The basic concept of this scheme was that "the land belongs to its owner, but the soil of the land should be made use of by all villagers." The scheme was aimed at effectively using all the farmland in the village by means of creating a farming complex and integrating land use for responsible farmers. All the village farmers participated in the discussion on this scheme, and the mayor decided to adopt it. In the discussion, participants unanimously confirmed their responsibilities as people living in a farming community to support people who watch out for farmers, the community, and agriculture itself, so as to make village life better.

To further promote this plan, the village enacted an ordinance and established a committee on farmland use to be involved in mediation regarding farmland leases and payments based on a land-use plan, and mainly consisting of the chairpersons of seven districts of the village, the representatives of the village council, the agricultural committee and the agricultural cooperative, and academic experts. The land rent was determined based on the mutual aid system; it was set so that land owners could receive high rent and borrowers could use land for low rent in order to facilitate the lease of farmland.

Meanwhile, a collective farming association involved in the shared use of agricultural machines and undertaking of farm work was established by each district of the village to promote efficient rice farming under a mechanized and organized harvesting system. The Miyada farming concept is to separate the ownership from the use of farmland to improve the overall productivity of the region's agriculture, under the committee for farmland use and the collective farming association. This concept had a great impact on local agricultural sector when most farms were run by land-owning farmers, and attracted a great deal of attention as the "Miyada method."

History of Miyada method, Miyada Village (Japanese)

Revision of Agricultural Land Act

The Miyada method, in which farmland is owned by a farmer but land use is determined by a committee on farmland use, is regarded as a forerunner of the current Agricultural Land Act of Japan, which was amended in 2009. The amendment reformed the old farmland system, which was based on the principle that persons who cultivate the farmland are also the ones who own the land. The current Act introduced deregulation of farmland leasing, allowing companies to participate in agricultural business, in principle, to promote the appropriate and efficient use of farmland.

The amendments were intended to address many problems facing agriculture in Japan, but in the village of Miyada, where voluntary farmland management has been promoted independently of laws, the ratio of abandoned farmland to all farmland is extremely low, about one-fourth of the national average. This outcome earned recognition as a good way to address the abandonment of farmland.

Actually, some people point out that although the Miyada method works well as a system to maintain farmlands owned by part-time farmers, it is not sufficient to develop the human resources needed to work in agriculture. In Miyada, the committee on farmland use and the collective farming association have been merged into a farming association, which deals with the arrangement of farmland use and the mediation of farmland leasing. This farming association, however, has the serious problem of a human resources shortage to deal with. There is an urgent need to establish an agricultural production organization.

Agriculture and the Miyada method of Miyada Village (Japanese)

Iijima Method

The town of Iijima, south of Miyada, has established a farming system different from the Miyada method. In Miyada, farmland has been managed on the initiative of the local government, while in Iijima, the Iijima Town Agricultural Center, to which all farm households in the town belong, is regarded as a town-wide organization, and characterized by the fact that farmers take the initiative in reorganizing farming in the region. Four district farming associations have been organized under the Center, each of which assesses the intentions of borrowers and landlords, and based on them formulates a plan for using farmland to arrange land use through the intermediary of the agricultural cooperative.

Fostering agricultural workers, in particular, is emphasized in Iijima, where an operator-type of organization was established under each district farming association. Under this approach, agricultural workers (farmers) themselves, who established the organization, operate it and are engaged in farming. Tagiri Nosan Co., founded in 2005, leases farmland and is entrusted with machine operations for all farmers in the district, while also running a direct sales store and making efforts to create the so-called "sixth-order" industry, in which functions in the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries are considered in an integrated way, resulting in the creation of new value. The achievements for its wide- ranging management were valued highly and the corporation received the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award, the top award in the Village Farming Category, at the 14th National Agriculture Workers' Summit in Nagano, held in 2011.

Reaching Consensus to Conserve Farmland

The approach to farmland management used in the Kamiina region began with the Miyada method and developed into an improved version, the Iijima method, which eventually has been adopted in neighboring regions, including by the cities of Ina and Komagane, the village of Minami Minowa, and the town of Minowa. Such a village farming approach seems to have been created based on the farmers in the Kamiina region taking firm responsibility for farmland as a regional asset that must be conserved by the whole agricultural community.

Some people insist that agriculture must be larger-scale and increasingly efficient. Nevertheless, the unique farmland management system in the Kamiina region has been developed precisely because it has many part-time farming households. Japan has a diverse geography and climate, so agricultural approaches must vary according to the region. Agricultural policy should therefore be suited to the characteristics of each region under the consensus that society as a whole will conserve the farmland, which has been handed down by previous generations.

Written by Ichie Tsunoda

TMG Expands Business Subsidy for Energy Self-Sufficiency Projects

2012-05-28T21:00:15Z

Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) announced on February 7, 2012, plans to expand its financial assistance for small and medium-sized businesses that install their own electric generators and storage batteries. The subsidy will be made available to businesses who wish to set up off-grid-capable generators and storage batteries outside Tokyo, provided that their headquarters were located in Tokyo as of March 11, 2011, and their headquarters functions have been in their registered headquarters for one year or longer.

To be eligible, businesses will be required to install the systems in areas that were affected by power restrictions as a direct result of the East Japan Great Earthquake, namely, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Yamanashi, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Yamagata, Akita, Aomori, and Niigata prefectures, and east of the Fuji River in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The subsidy will also be available for the purchase of new storage batteries with a capacity of two kilowatt-hours or more and their accessories, if they are installed for the purpose of energy conservation and backup power for facilities and equipment. Businesses will also be required to keep the batteries full at all times by purchasing additional electricity in order to meet their own electricity needs during sudden power outages and to be able to continue operating during rolling blackouts.

Supportive devices and design and installation fees will also fall within the scope of the subsidy. In fiscal 2012, up to two-thirds of actual costs and fees or 20 million yen (about US$244,000) will be subsidized for applicants applying as a single business, and up to three quarters or 560 million yen (about US$6.8 million) for applicants applying as a group of businesses.

Posted: 2012/05/29 06:00:15 AM

Kawasaki City to Formulate a 'Kawasaki Mechanism' to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

2012-05-27T21:00:15Z

The city of Kawasaki plans to formulate a "Kawasaki Mechanism" (tentative name) in FY2012 to contribute to the reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using top-notch environmental technologies developed by companies in the city, it was announced on January 23, 2012. With this internationally and domestically advanced system, the city intends to promote their use, both at home and abroad, and accelerate international contributions and further industrial promotion.

The city aims to reduce the equivalent amount of GHGs emitted from the city in FY1990 by over 25 percent by FY2020, by reducing the amount of GHG emissions in the city and contributing to emissions reduction globally.

The so-called Kawasaki Mechanism is a system that calculates, evaluates, and allows the visualization of the amount of contribution to reducing GHG emissions outside the city through the efforts of companies in the city, and enables the companies involved to deduct the certified amount of contribution from the amount of its GHG emissions.

The city plans to spread the word about this method of calculating the amount of contribution in reducing emissions outside the city, promote the initiative, and raise awareness among businesses in the city on the start of operating the system in FY2013.

[Newsletter] Kawasaki City's Latest Cutting-Edge Environmental Technologies for the World

Posted: 2012/05/28 06:00:15 AM

Nagoya University Wins Eco-Friendly Award -- A First for a Large Japanese University

2012-05-26T21:00:15Z

The Campus Climate Challenge Executive Committee announced on October 26, 2011, the eco-friendly ranking of Japanese universities based on a survey that evaluated their environmental efforts. The committee consists of the Japan Youth Ecology League (an environmental NPO) and other green activity groups in colleges. In the general category, Nagoya University (with 575.5 points), which won fifth prize last year, was awarded this year's top prize -- a first for any large university in Japan.

Nagoya University uses experimental equipment and has an affiliated hospital, so it consumes a lot of energy. It used an energy service company to help save energy by better controlling air-conditioning systems and upgrading equipment. It is challenging for such a large university to take measures to cope with environment problems, but Nagoya was positively evaluated for its innovative efforts. In the private university category, Koriyama Women's University (with 517 points) was awarded first prize for proactively introducing renewable energy use.

This, the Committee's third survey, targeted 744 Japanese universities, focused on four criteria (energy/carbon dioxide, environmental actions, environmental management, and student cooperation/education), and had responses from 166 universities.

It found that compared to last year, every university that responded had improved its countermeasures, and had worked especially hard to conserve electricity and energy, because of the widespread necessity to save electricity in the country.

Mie University and Nippon Institute of Technology Win Eco-Friendly University Award 2010 (Related JFS article)
[Youth Action] JFS Articles Activities at Colleges
[Youth Action] Eco-League(Japan Youth Ecology League)

Posted: 2012/05/27 06:00:15 AM

Sumitomo Announces Increased Involvement in Geothermal Projects in Indonesia

2012-05-25T21:00:15Z

Sumitomo Corp., a major Japanese general trading company, announced on March 2, 2012, that it had entered into 30-year power purchase agreements with PT. PLN, an Indonesian state-owned power utility concerning large-scale geothermal power generation projects in Sumatra, Indonesia. Along with Sumitomo, PT. Supreme Energy, a local private-sector power developer, and International Power-GDF SUEZ, a major European power developer, are participating as partners.

Sumitomo, jointly with its partners, says it will construct two 110-megawatt (MW) geothermal power plants, among the largest in the world, at each of two mining sites in Sumatra -- one in Muara Laboh and the other in Rajabasa -- for a total capacity of 440 MW. It aims to complete the plants and start selling the electricity produced at both sites by 2016.

In February 2011, Sumitomo began participating in the projects at their initial stage, the most upstream level of involvement of all the overseas geothermal projects undertaken in the past by any Japanese company. With a track record of having supplied approximately 50 percent of the geothermal installations in Indonesia, Sumitomo intends to be further involved in any of the country's additional geothermal projects.

[Renewables] Current Status of Geothermal Power in Japan

Posted: 2012/05/26 06:00:15 AM

New Emissions Trading Method Tested Using Valentine's Day Cards

2012-05-24T21:00:15Z

Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) and four companies, Toppan Printing Co., Nihon Unisys, Ltd., Seven & I Holdings Co., and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co., tested a new CO2 emissions trading method in a demonstration trial using information and communications technology from February 9 to 13, 2012.

NII and these four companies have been conducting research focused on a method for reducing the unit size of traded emission rights (carbon offsets) to a smaller, more easily transferable and purchasable quantity. Emission rights are usually managed and traded in units of between 1 and 1,000 tons. This research-based trial reduced the size of the trading unit for emission rights (J-VER) created by three forest cooperative associations based in Kamaishi City and other areas in Iwate Prefecture that were struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The emission rights were attached to greeting cards that were then sold for 100 yen (US$1.30) a piece.

More specifically, 10 kilograms of emission rights were attached to Valentine's Day cards sold at the Yokohama Sogo Department Store. Card recipients were able to access a test website using a cell phone or other device and then select an organization they wished to support from among three reconstruction assistance organizations. The selected organization could then offset the CO2 emissions from their reconstruction activities.

The trial was designed to examine the effectiveness of a small-unit, simplified emissions trading method proposed by research, while simultaneously benefiting reconstruction assistance in the disaster area.

Environment Ministry Registers 3 Projects for J-VER Credit Scheme (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/05/25 06:00:15 AM

Report Shows Drastic Changes in Energy Market in Fiscal 2011

2012-05-23T21:00:15Z

The energy market environment in Japan drastically changed in fiscal 2011 according to a report on the domestic energy liberalization and energy service markets entitled "Market Strategy of Power/Gas/Energy Services 2012," released on February 13, 2012, by Fuji Keizai Co., a Japanese marketing research firm.

Due to damage to gas pipelines and manufacturing facilities as well as the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and its subsequent tsunami, and resulting postponement of resuming operations at nuclear power plants throughout Japan, the functions of the energy infrastructure in Japan, through which energy had been stably supplied before the Earthquake, have been restricted.

Electricity supply, in particular, was heavily affected and the market environment drastically changed; electricity consumers have strengthened their efforts to save electricity due to energy supply instability. While energy suppliers have made efforts to maintain stable energy supply and procurement, energy management system/service business operators have tried to meet the needs for electricity saving measures.

Electric power sales in fiscal 2010 by business operators other than general power suppliers, known as power producers and suppliers (PPS), increased by 30 percent from the previous fiscal year to 19.96 billion kWh, while in fiscal 2011 the amount is estimated to have been nearly flat at 20.06 billion kWh, up 0.5 percent from the previous year, resulting from difficulty in electricity procurement as well as conservation efforts by existing customers.

Toshiba to Undertake Smart Energy Demonstration Project in Miyakojima (Related JFS article)
Smart City Project in Chiba, Japan, Gets Full-Scale Launch (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/05/24 06:00:15 AM

Japan's Meteorological Agency Confirms Gradual Warming of Ocean

2012-05-22T21:00:15Z

Average annual water temperature in the ocean down to a depth of 700 meters
Copyright Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported on February 13, 2012, that the temperature of the ocean, down to a depth of 700 meters, has been increasing over the past 50 years and the global average rate of increase was 0.02 degree Celcius per decade. This study was made by analyzing water temperature data collected from oceanographic observations from 1950 to 2011.

JMA has reported on the long-term increase in sea surface temperatures. The decades-long warming of the ocean's interior, evidenced by its new study, suggests, however, that heat is also accumulating in the upper 700 meters of the ocean. The increase in deeper water temperature could be attributed to the downward conduction or transfer of surface heat, which has been intensified by global warming and natural variability on various time scales.

Ocean warming results in higher sea levels due to the thermal expansion According to satellite altimetry data between 1993 and 2010, the sea level rose at a rate of 2.95 millimeters per year, and thermal expansion of the ocean down to a depth of 700 meters is thought to be responsible for one third of this elevation.   

JMA plans to update its analysis results annually.

Posted: 2012/05/23 06:00:15 AM

[Newsletter] Making the Impossible Possible -- "Miracle Apples" and Natural Cultivation

2012-05-22T05:13:18Z

JFS Newsletter No.116 (April 2012)

Photo courtesy of Akinori Kimura

In Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, in northern Japan "Miracle Apples" are being grown. Miracle Apples are raised through a "natural cultivation" method that employs neither pesticides nor fertilizers, not even organic matter such as compost or manure. These apples do not turn brown from oxidation after being cut. When left untouched for some time, they start fermenting without decay.

Japan is one of the largest pesticide users in the world. It is said that apples in particular cannot be produced without pesticides. In this article, we introduce Akinori Kimura who has succeeded in growing pesticide-free apples with his "natural cultivation" method.

Differences between Natural Cultivation and Organic/Natural Farming

Kimura's natural cultivation method aims to reproduce the natural environment of woodlands and forests on farmland, without using pesticides, chemical fertilizers or organic matter such as compost and manure. His theory is that this brings out the natural strength of crops and helps them grow vigorously. Since natural cultivation does not use even organic fertilizers, it is different from organic farming. On this point, natural cultivation is similar to the natural farming method established by Masanobu Fukuoka.

Japanese Farmer-Philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka: Natural Farming Greening the Deserts

Natural farming avoids tilling based on a concept of as little human intervention as possible. With Kimura's natural cultivation farmers put their greatest effort into thorough observations of nature and preparation of an environment suitable for the growth of the crop. That is one difference between natural farming and natural cultivation. The concept of natural cultivation holds that, because the natural environment of woodlands and forests was created over an extended period of time, human intervention is necessary to appropriately reproduce a natural environment on man-made farmland.

Kimura sprays apple trees with vinegar to prevent diseases. To protect the apple trees from summer heat and dry soil, he does not clear away undergrowth. He mows the weeds in fall to help the apple trees recognize the changing season. This enhances the color and taste of the apples.

While growing pesticide-free apples, Kimura also researched possibilities for natural cultivation of rice and vegetables. To improve poor soil, he plants legumes such as soybeans, which fix nitrogen compounds in the soil, enriching it. Unlike no-tillage natural farming, he tills the soil, but he does it roughly and less frequently than conventional farmers. Rough tilling brings more air into soil, allowing aerobic microorganisms to work actively.

These techniques we've described are just a few examples of natural cultivation methods. Kimura is now engaged in the creation of a comprehensive manual that can be used nationwide, with the help of people working on natural cultivation in various parts of Japan. Natural cultivation is based on establishing site-specific methods that accord with the local climate, soil characteristics, and crops. This site-specificity makes it difficult to create a manual. Establishing natural cultivation methods suitable for an individual farm requires observation, experience, knowledge and time.

It is usually said that farmers experience a large decrease in yield for about three years after shifting to natural cultivation from conventional farming, as practiced by mainstream farmers throughout Japan given an averaged frequency and volume of fertilizer application and pesticide spraying. As the farmland and crops become better adapted over time, however, yields increase up to about 70 to 80 percent of conventional farming yields. Some farmers even achieve higher yields than in conventional farming.

Continued natural cultivation improves plants' resistance to diseases and pests. Many people feel safer eating vegetables exhibiting insect damage as a sign that pesticides have not been used. However, soil under natural cultivation is similar to natural soil which has no excess nutrients, an so very little insect damage is seen in vegetables produced by natural cultivation, which are also usually beautiful and symmetrical in shape. We can think of plants raised through natural cultivation as artifacts produced through the skill of farmers as artisans who have created cultivation methods well-suited to the plants and their local land.

Photo courtesy of Akinori Kimura

Pesticide Damage and Miracle Apples

How did Kimura start to work on natural cultivation?

He started to cultivate apples in the 1970s, and at this time he used pesticides and chemical fertilizers in large quantities. In those days, pesticides were sprayed by hand. When pesticides happened to splash on his hands or face, it caused skin irritation so severe that the skin stripped off. Holding back tears, he used to run to the bathroom to wash the pesticides away as soon as he finished work. Suffering pesticide damage himself, he decided he did not want to use pesticides any more.

At first, he worked to reduce the amounts of pesticide he used, which led to reductions in crop yields but achieved a profit due to reduced pesticide costs. This result encouraged him to try farming entirely without pesticides and chemical fertilizers. He then came to understand that reduced chemical farming and chemical free farming are completely different.

Immediately after switching to chemical-free farming, the trees dropped their leaves and looked dead even in the summer, producing no flowers in spring. No flowers means no fruit. While facing the difficulties of no crops and no income, he continued seeking a natural cultivation method. It took more than ten years before his apple trees finally produced fruit.

Apple trees are not native to Japan and are easily infected with fungus and other diseases in its warm, humid climate. In order to raise apples in Japan, varieties have been rapidly and repeatedly improved, resulting in extremely vulnerable trees. It is commonly believed that apples cannot be produced here without using pesticides. The apple produced through natural cultivation is thus very much a "miracle apple" that greatly transcends common assumptions about apple-growing in Japan.

Harmful Nitrates

Kimura conducted an interesting experiment to illustrate the safety of natural cultivation. He put rice grown by natural cultivation, rice grown by conventional farming and Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) certified organic rice into three bottles, poured water into the bottles and left them in a warm place for two weeks or so. The results were: natural cultivation rice fermented into vinegar, conventional farming rice became putrid, emitting a foul odor, and astonishingly enough JAS certified organic rice became putrid even sooner than conventional-farming rice

From the left, natural cultivation, conventional and organic rice.
Photo courtesy of Akinori Kimura

Why did the organic rice, which is believed to be safe, go rotten so fast? Kimura speculates that immature compost may have been the cause. Using immature compost is believed to result in the accumulation of nitrate nitrogen (nitrates) in plants.

Kimura recommends that compost containing cow manure be fully matured by being fermented for three to five years for organic farming. The manure can be considered fully mature if radish seeds sprout and grow when planted on it. He has reported that rice and vegetables cultivated with fully matured compost showed the same results in decomposition experiments as those grown by the natural cultivation method.

Plants absorb nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth. That is why all fertilizers, both chemical and organic, contain a large amount of nitrogen. Nitrogen breaks down into nitrate nitrogen (nitrates) in soil, and then is absorbed by plants. Though useful to plants, nitrates can be harmful to human beings: infants have died from methemoglobinemia, a blood disease that can be caused by ingesting nitrates in drinking water, due to excessive intake of nitrates. Thus, people have become concerned about the contamination of soil, water and agricultural products by nitrates in fertilizers.

The EU has safety standards for nitrates contained in vegetables of up to about 2500ppm, although this varies depending on the season or kind of vegetable. In contrast, Japan has standards for tap water, but no regulations for vegetables. Some vegetables contain over 2500ppm of nitrates. Most vegetables grown with Kimura's natural cultivation method contain less than 500ppm of nitrates. Some contain only single digit levels.

The Spirit of Natural Cultivation -- Gratitude to Nature

In his lectures or books, Kimura often talks about vegetables as if they were human, saying, "Think how we can make vegetables happy," or "The vegetables may be delighted if we do this or that."

When he stopped applying pesticides, his apple trees were weakened and even seemed dead. He walked from one tree to another asking them not to die. He felt he could not speak to the trees on the roadside for fear of attracting his neighbors' attention. Oddly enough, the trees to which he did not speak died in the end.

Kimura says that everything has a spirit. He asks us to express our appreciation to crops, which provide us with the fruits of the land. Natural cultivation is pesticide- and fertilizer-free farming, but it also involves experience, knowledge of farming and, more than anything, a spirit of gratitude towards nature.

Nature keeps a perfect balance through the diversity of many creatures, and human beings are a part of nature, which also keeps us alive. I suspect that we have ended up generating diseases like cancer and allergies because we have used pesticides to eliminate insects bothersome to us, considering them pests, and polluted the earth by using fertilizers to obtain higher crop yields. Natural cultivation, which recovers the natural balance in the process of producing food, teaches us the spirit of gratitude to nature.

Natural cultivation is not easy because it takes a long time to establish the methods suitable for a certain area of farmland or crop. Yields from natural cultivation are only 70 to 80 percent of yields from conventional farming. Continuing with natural cultivation, however, makes it possible to harvest fine, safe vegetables little damaged from diseases or insect pests, even without the use of fertilizers or pesticides, which of course, need not be purchased.

A network of farmers and marketers of natural cultivation products is spreading, albeit little by little. The practice of natural cultivation has started overseas as well, for example in Korea and Taiwan. Kimura hopes that natural cultivation, which keeps people who eat or produce crops, soil, water, air and living creatures fine and healthy, will continue spreading throughout the world.

Photo courtesy of Akinori Kimura

Written by Yuriko Yoneda

Winners of 2011 Environment-Friendly Farming Competition Announced

2012-05-21T21:00:15Z

The Promotion Committee for Environment-Friendly Farming in Japan announced on February 17, 2012, eight award winners for the environment-friendly farming competition in 2011. Among those recognized were the practices of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) in Nakasatsunai Village, Hokkaido, Japan. The committee was established to promote sustainable agriculture through keeping soil in good condition that consider reducing environmental impact caused by chemical fertilizers and pesticides while utilizing material cycle systems, and balancing with productivity Showcasing excellent examples, the competition aims to stimulate consumer recognition and eventually popularize sustainable agricultural practices.

With the community-wide efforts, JA Nakasatsunai Village consequently succeeded in reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and synthetic agrochemicals by more than 50 percent in the area, through establishing the regional cycling system of organic materials and five-year crop rotation system, .which helped them win the award.

[Newsletter] Government Initiatives to Support a Sustainable Agricultural Industry in Japan

Posted: 2012/05/22 06:00:15 AM

Coca-Cola Launches Support Project for Japan's Local Water Resources

2012-05-20T21:00:15Z

On February 22, 2012, Coca-Cola Japan launched a campaign named "I LOHAS support project for local water resources" with its bottled spring water brand I LOHAS.

With I LOHAS, obtained from seven places in Japan, the company has established a donation campaign aiming at protecting local water resources in Japan. Until 2013 on an as-needed basis, the company will give back part of its sales from between March 5 and December 31, 2012, to non-profit organizations and local governments selected by 47 prefectures for their water resource protection activities, such as cleaning and greening of wellheads, tree planting, and tree thinning.

[Newsletter] Coca-Cola Japan Aiming for a Sustainable Society and Business Growth under New Global Corporate Principle: "Live Positively -- Make a Positive Difference in the World"
Tokyo Waterworks, 'Safe, Better Tasting Tap Water' Project (Related JFS article)

Posted: 2012/05/21 06:00:15 AM

LIXIL Launches New Shower that Reduces Water Use by 48%

2012-05-19T21:00:15Z

On April 2, 2012, LIXIL Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of building materials and housing equipment, started selling the water-saving "Eco-Full multifunctional shower", which can reduce water use by up to 48 percent when compared with conventional products.

The shower is equipped with new features inside the showerhead that increase water pressure, requiring less water.

LIXIL estimates that the showerhead alone can save reduce annual water and gas bills by 4,500 yen (about US $54.9) and 8,700 yen (about US $106.1), respectively and that the showerhead with on/offswitch activated can reduce these bills by 6,200 yen (about US $75.6) and 11,900 yen (about US $145.1) annually.

Posted: 2012/05/20 06:00:15 AM

Japanese Non-Life Insurance Company Supports Reforestation Efforts in Tsunami-hit Coastal Area

2012-05-18T21:00:15Z

Tokyo Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. announced on February 24, 2012, the company's decision to support and participate in the "10-Year Restoration Project for the Coastal Forests of the Tohoku Region," initiated by The Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement-International (OISCA), from March 2012 as part of its efforts to promote post disaster reconstruction.

A maritime forest in Sendai Plain, Miyagi Prefecture, used to protect local communities from drifting sand and salt, serving as an important natural levee for the region's environmental protection, but was seriously damaged by the catastrophic tsunami accompanying the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

In order to revitalize the forests, OISCA has initiated a decade-long project to not only increase production of seedlings, planting and nurturing of forests, but also restore farmlands and create employment opportunities for local citizens that will lead to comprehensive regional development and require long-term efforts.

The company will take part in the initiative by providing both economic and personnel resources, in terms of a 10 million yen (approximately US$125,000) donation, fund-raising through a charity concert, and volunteer activities by employees to assist the project.

[Newsletter] How Did the Great East Japan Earthquake Affect Ecosystems and Biodiversity?

Posted: 2012/05/19 06:00:15 AM