First of all I should claim that I have very basic knowledge of growing food and zero on farming. I mean no ignorance from this post and at least understand that farming is incredibly difficult. Consider this thinking out loud, as Ed Sheeran once shouted about.
Me and my wife both live in the city and work office jobs. They aren’t as bad as a lot of horror stories you hear about a lot of Japanese companies but still, it’s soul destroying.
We both love the countryside and will eventually inherit some land out in the countryside.
We’ve been discussing what it would be like to quit city life and try to make a living farming and growing vegetables. Is it even possible to make a living doing this on a mid-career change? How would you even start?
You sometimes see on tv some random foreigner making a living supporting a family here by growing food so they’re out there.
The jackpot would be someone here who actually does this but if not just any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thank you
37 comments
wandie_farm on instagram might be a valuable resource.
There was a wonderful series of documentaries on this subject released back in the 60’s, called Green Acres. Highly recommend you familiarize yourself with it 👍
technically it’s possible. There was a dude who grew exotic veggies and sold them to high-class restaurants, thus gaining a steady revenue. However, except to be in the red until you get your farm going.
I might consider specialising and additional sources of income (B&B for example). It will be a rough few years, but can work if given time and creativity.
Paging u/FelixtheFarmer
I don’t think a sole farmer can compete with agribusiness, but you could do a hybrid business of organic/unique crops and tourism.
I know one guy who I used to work with who burned out and started his own farm.
He’s tried selling to distributors who come to your place to collect produce for grocery stores, but for something like carrots, they only pay like 100 yen per kilogram. For these places you probably need to invest in some pretty heavy duty farming equipment.
The other option he said was to sell at farmers markets which gives higher profit margins, but sales could fluctuate.
Ignore the idiots. You can absolutely start over. Being Japan I would recommend (crop wise) corn, soybeans or sweet potatoes. Very high yield crops with low effort. I think corn is the lowest, then soybeans, then sweet potatoes.
My dream was to buy a farm and raise Blue Faced Leicester sheep. They’re very chill and trainable sheep. They have lovely long wool but it’s a lot lighter than normal. You would think this was a perk, but fleeces are usually sold by weight so hardly anyone sells purebred fleeces. I thought Japan would appreciate this quirk, so if I managed to get over there. That was my plan.
The secret to profitable farming is simple; veggies in front, weed out back.
Check out kasamatsu farms. They are always looking for help too if you want to get your hands dirty and learn about the process.
You can always try it out by doing a work share through Helpx or WWOOF
First, you should decide where you want to farm, then join a training center in the prefecture. You can google it. If you do it full time then the ward office will give you subsidy 補助金 (You have to pass a test). You also need to permission of the trainer. This is the case for organic farming so don’t know if they give subsidy for conventional farming.
Generally you have to do 2 years training. Then the trainer can help you find a place to farm once you are capable enough to solo. Also there are farming convention in tokyo that are actively looking for new farmers.
Go ahead and do it!
Don’t listen to nay-sayers, we humans learnt to farm at least 3 times in the history of humankind.
Be prepared to learn a lot, but then there’s YouTube, your new neighbours, books, etc.; and all the government sites, as farming is typically heavily subsidised in developed countries. And you’ll have so much time just watching your greens grow. And all the rainy days.
Before you go all in, there are a bunch of places outside of Tokyo where you can be a “weekend farmer” with adult supervision from a real farmer. I think it was made for big city folks who need to disconnect and destress. probably good to try it out for a few months and also get some real world advice from a pro.
Can you visit the place you will inherit a few times a year before deciding to move?
I helped with the process of growing rice this year, it was harder than expected things like walking through mud, carrying the right equipment, & working during the heat.
I would suggest trying it out for a few days before making the commitment.
Also in some areas with lots of land you can find people who have large farm equipment that can prep your land yearly for a fee.
It’s definitely doable, but it will take a gargantuan amount of money, time and effort to get started.
It’s really a comedy show, but I recommend watching Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime to get an idea of the sorts of hardships you might face. Obviously farming in Japan will come with its own set of difficulties.
I would think to get properly started you’ll probably want to hire a farmer or two, full time, to show you the ropes for the first couple of years. But I should think it’s possible with enough effort!
Sounds like a real-life version of Harvest Moon.
I’m not sure what the location is, but, farming is hard work for little money. Would probably be much easier to operate a B&B and advertise it toward English-speaking tourists who want to do something different, like visit a rural farming village.
Interesting thread to follow though.
As a bridge until you reach profitability, consider getting some remote work.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1gwk3u/i_ama_gaijin_farmer/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Maybe play some Farming Simulator first.
Try WWOOFing in an area you are interested in and you may meet some farmers and learn some valuable info
I’m kinda amazed at how many people talk out of their ass in this sub without knowing anything about the subject.
First of all you need a farming license. You can’t just farm on your inherited land in the countryside, the government allocates land that is specifically for farming use. In order to rent or purchase these plots, you need that farming license. Iirc the wait-list on this is pretty insane. I have a friend who tried to buy an old house in the countryside with an attached farm, but of course needed to apply for the license to even be considered as a buyer. He applied last year and afaik, he still hasn’t gotten it. If you’re really thinking about becoming a farmer, a google search will point you the your prefectural office to sign up, might as well do it sooner than later if you actually think this is something plausible in your future.
To get your farming whatever it’s called (what you need to acquire additional farmland – the whole inheritance thing is a lucky break for you) you need to “control” a certain number of square meters of farmland. Most farming communities have programs set up to provide junior farmers with mentors up to I believe the age cut off is 40-45?
But be aware you’re going to need a second or even 3rd job. The farmers I knew in Yamanashi were universally using it as a hobby to make some extra money or a tax dodge. Of course they were all working in the factory I was at so YMMV.
Count with my axe! Gimly.gif I wish could do that… If it could be helpful are some books from John Seymur https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(author)
I have both of their most famous books -Farming for Self-Sufficiency – Independence on a 5-Acre Farm (1973). Schocken Books. (with Sally Seymour) (the American version of ‘Self-sufficiency’) and The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency. London: Faber & Faber. 1976. link to archive Org https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteBookOfSelfSufficiencyJohnSeymour
Nice but I never could check if they are useful and don’t know if is good info to plant Japanese vegetable..
It’s definitely possible. I bought a 5 acre citrus farm in Miyazaki this year. It’s pretty overwhelming but I’d say I’m failing forward haha. Kind of wish this place was smaller, but it’ll pay off in the long run. I’d recommend getting a small property for cheap and keeping costs low.
Look into Jadam, Korean natural farming, and no-dig/no-till. There are a lot of great ways to grow organic food and repair the broken soil out here.
If you want to go the easy way, you can get really good benefits from the country for your first 5 years. But they won’t help you unless you’re willing to work for JA.. That means buying their poisons; insecticides/herbicides/chemical nutrients. And you’ll have to do what they say. And you have to sell to them for whatever they decide on.
Organic is the way of the future. The science has evolved. I can see huge, huge differences in my soil after just one season using jadam and knf. Anyway, it’s a big field with a ton of options. It’s definitely possible but you have to find your niche.
You better research that dream very carefully before you actually do it. Most of the farms in the area of Kyushu we live in are either family owned or run by food companies. Making it as farmers without having any knowledge of or experience in farming seems almost impossible. It’s grueling work for independent farmers and impossible to survive without government subsidies.
There’s a farmer in osaka who runs workshops to help introduce farmers to sustainable methods. He also runs workshops for people such as yourself, who are considering running a farm. I’m at work, so I’ll edit in the info later.
It is possible, but it’s difficult. Your best bet is specializing and marketing yourself to restaurants, or making finished products, at least to start. Chilis and hot sauce for example. High volume cash crops are difficult and requires a lot of investment.
If you’re not gardening atm, I would strongly recommend you start. There should be community gardens, check your ward office for more information. Aside from typhoons, there are many challenges to farming in Japan.
Before jumping in to make it your income source, you might want to try growing for self-sufficiency or food independence.
It will give you an idea of what it takes, and get you valuable experience you can use in support of any licence stuff.
I think it’s a great idea! With the future of farming looking bleak in the next 30 years, we definitely need more younger people making a go of it. I’ve been living in rural Japan for almost 20 years and observing all my JA neighbors and their efforts. I plant veg just as a hobby as farming is backbreaking work with no holidays. We rent out our green tea fields to the older famers just to pay the annual tax as it is not lucrative anymore.
I’ve read people mention you doing organic niche crops which could work as competing against large scale operations for traditional large yielding crops like sweet potato, hokusai, cabbage etc. would be extremely difficult. However, you have to remember in this country niche products are fun at first but can be difficult to sustain and expensive. Japanese people tend to dabble in unusual foods but will not generally make it into the regular rotation which is why I see so many amazing new fusion restaurants close after a few months here in the countryside. But perhaps if your studied a specific crop that works well within the Japanese diet you could make a little money off it at farmers markets or making a collaboration with smaller organic restaurants/cafes.
The future of farming here is also looking into more tech to improve sustainability—since the number of working farmers has dropped drastically in the last 30 years and will continue to do so as population ages out and young people usually have no interest in the hard life of farming—but the lack of flat lands in large quantities is proving difficult. Robotic machinery breaks easily. But if your current job has anything to do with the tech industry that would certainly help.
Just as a side note: Also some have mentioned corn. Do not do corn. I’ve watched my neighbors lose entire fields in one typhoon. The weather here is unpredictable and getting worse by the year.
The best advice here is for you to try it a few times and see if you could sustain the lifestyle and Japanese people demand quality or they won’t buy. Study the soil and weather patterns where the land will be. Study study study…I love living in the country! I hope you do it!
Even if you inherit the farm land you will have to have approval of the local agricultural board in order to register it in your name. The Agricultural Land Law. That entails convincing them you know how to farm, and have a realistic plan to do so. Therefore you should find some way to practice farming before you apply for approval. You could even plant a few things on the land now, and take photos of your attempts to bring the land under cultivation. Or you can take part in various horticultural-related training courses.
YMMV but in my experience:
-Farmers are definitely up to help new people moving into depressed farming communities and getting set up. Lots of offers to instruct, use their tractor or machines, share etc. I found. A lot of farmers are happy to see the empty overgrown fields around their own farms get used, as it keeps down animals and pests in their own field.
-Lots of mild politicking with water tables, crop rotation etc.
-your local nogyo inkai can vary wildly. From complete nazis to extremely lax.
-rice farmers have a LOT of pride in their rice.
-Think of it more as a side income rather than a main income. If you really want to earn cash, you need to raise cattle or other animals, and have the land clear cut and pastures set up. I would imagine startup is cheaper in tohoku or hokkaido, but far from cheap
-find a niche product
-account for not only set up costs, but time as well. Things like orchards take years (although apples are a great calm way to earn money, you can leave em for a while etc.)
-do some sort of iju program or farmstay first. Make sure you REALLY want to and can live in the countryside.
Do you not mind bugs, animals, and snakes? Can you stand a cold house or can you afford to build a well insulated new one? Can you get along with less social privacy than the city? Are you ok with people and resources being far away and inconvenient. Are you ok with isolation and self entertainment?
I am not farming yet, but I help around the farmers in my area sometimes and I get a lot of community pressure to start up and will probably begin in a few years when I have more time.
If you do, please grow some gaikoku no yasai that are hard to find around here.
You may want to contact JA (Japan agriculture). They are a co-op that basically supplies most domestic fruit, grains and vegetables to supermarkets in Japan. If you were to start a farm they would be a likely company you would contact to sell goods to.
You may also want to think about growing your fruits/vegs/grains, then making them into something like alcohol, cosmetics, omiyage etc.
Farming is really demanding physical labor, and I think you might find dealing with JA and agricultural land in a different way that is soul-destroying.
OK, this is something you’re going to need to research and sit on for another year at least… I agree with the weekend farmer thing and would also just say, try with a tomato planter on your balcony first.
I grew up in L.A. and my husband in San Francisco. I met him in college. He told me always wanted to be a farmer. He became a Plant Physiologist and when he retired I found him a perfect farm. Not too bit (8.5 acreas) with a small vineyard, orchard, blueberries and a hay field. We are not far from cities but it is dark at night and feels like we are in the middle of nowhere.
We moved to the countryside to start a chili pepper farm. We still have our main jobs but the farm is growing each year. I think there is spot on advice by the other commenters here but I will say this: Farming is no doubt a team sport. There is no way you can move somewhere and get setup and profitable without the good will and help from many, many people in your area.
Also, when deciding on what to grow, if it’s in the ground you need to factor in additional space for crop rotation, processing, and machine storage. That means from the get go, your productive land for your main crop is only half of the land you have not the full land.