How can I grow grapes in Osaka?

32 comments

1. You could do it on your balcony I think. I drive by a house every day that has a grape vine they put in this year and had wires above the approach to the house where the vines grew. They had a descent harvest.

2. There are grape farmers in Nara. Go for a quick trip and hear from them!

3. “quit working” After several decades of back breaking labor to get your business off the ground of course. Just like everywhere else in the world, agriculture is a war against nature to not lose your crop to bugs, weather and poor farming.

4. I know it’s not Osaka but there are plenty of grape farmers in Nagano. The government is subsidizing farm conversions to grapes at the moment so now is a good time to get started.

   Just in case you don’t know, it takes three years from planting to first commercial harvest so factor that time into your plans. Also, water. This year was too dry for grapes so farmers without irrigation struggled. If the summer continues to be this hot and dry, you’ll likely need land with a well.

5. I love this post. It’s very refreshing seeing a random question like this one. I wish you all the best with your balcony winery.

6. My FIL likes to plant anything and everything to see what will grow. We live in Chubu and the grapes are always a crapshoot.

   Our kiwis, however are crazy healthy no matter the weather. Not like it is so helpful, haha.

7. Not sure how to grow but there are a bunch of grape farms between Habikino-shi and Nara -ken so it’s probably easier than you think.

   https://osaka-yanen.com/en/event_post/grape-picking-in-habikino/

8. There some super famous grape varieties in the Kansai area. Yes you can grow grapes the crows love them.

9. Haven’t tried grapes, I would think the vines would take up a lot of space on a balcony.

   I’ve grown a lot of berries on the balcony, they usually do decently but it can get very hot during the summer so you need to make sure they don’t dry out.

   Currently I have blackberries but in the past I’ve had blueberries and raspberries also.

10. Just be careful, home-brewing is basically illegal in Japan. With that being said, many people do it anyways. Make sure you get get a license before trying to sell anything or you will get fucked hard.

11. There is a very famous french wine maker on Sado island who goes to a couple of prefectures atm, to work with wine makers, teaching them the french way to make wine and working with vinyards. I believe he has imported his french grapes and is currently growing them outside his house, last time I saw. So, it’s being done.

    Hes a very nice guy so perhaps you can give your google-fu a try and contact him?

    Japanese wine is indeed not very good.

12. I grow grapes in Nagano. You can definitely grow them on a balcony. Google “Georgia grapes on balcony.” It is very normal to do that in that country. The Google image search will give you an idea of how they are typically set up.

    Areas like Nagano, Yamanashi, and Hokkaido are more common because wine grapes need those cool nights. The cool nights slow down the grapes metabolism so they don’t break down acid too quickly. Wine grapes need that sugar/acid balance. Maybe on the outskirts of Osaka, in the more elevated areas you could get those cool nights.

13. I haven’t found the premises yet but maybe we could share a piece of land as I build my spaceship factory?

14. ” I’ve decided one day I’ll be able to quit working ”

    Ah the dream to quit our jobs with our side gig.

15. I grow grapes.

    I own a house with a yard that is small but has a long, narrow stretch that gets a lot of sunlight.

    So my method has been:

    1) Buy grape plant at Home Centre for like 600 Yen or something.

    2) Plant it in the ground next to my house.

    3) Water as needed.

    4) as it gets bigger, train it to grow up the side of the house the way you want.

    I planted it about 5 years ago and its grown pretty big without much work required on my part, its up to the second floor and now I’m starting to get it to grow horizontally across the balcony. We got a decent harvest of grapes (Delaware) this year. I don’t make wine with it, probably will need to wait a couple more years before we produce enough to even try. Mainly its just something I did for my kids to have fun picking.

16. Hi future viticulturist. Contrary to your belief Japan is a great country for growing grapes with rich volcanic well drained soil on hillsides. You often see wineries throughout the central alps. I too have thought about this although the varieties and growing styles are significantly different than what I am used to from the Finger Lakes and Napa regions of the US as well as the eastern side of Germany and growing along the south bank of the Elbe. But considering I used to help my grandfather make wine with muscadine grapes we’d pick along the river by the family home in Texas I don’t think it matters that much.

    1. There might or might not be an allotment depending on your city, that being said growing something that takes years to produce fruit and more years to produce good fruit is going to be difficult when you only have an assigned allotment for 1-2 years then you have to reenter the drawing for the allotment. That being said check with your city, my city allotment was IIRC about 8000jpy a year for 2 years and about 20sqm.

    2. You can grow grapes in pots on your balcony. You can purchase some cultivars at your local home center especially once spring sprungs. I often see grapes at home centers especially the HOMES and D2s. The secret is going to be pruning. It hurts me to see the local homes in my area (they grow lots of grapes near my office and around Tokyo/Kanagawa) who have home grape vines that they just let grow like crazy rather than properly pruning/trellising them. Pruning/trellising in a big pot is absolutely doable though.

    3. The biggest challenge your going to face is one of scale and the farmers lobby. To get the sort of land you’re going to want to get to support this and to really make a possible business out of it you’ll need to have access to getting yourself registered as a farmer. Your city might actually have a program that will pay an experienced farmer to “mentor” you – and if you’ve found a winery to work with they could be your mentor – if not there are several BIG wineries in the Kofu valley. But look into it. For instance there are established vineyards I am aware of in Yamanashi right now that are for sale but you’ll need that farmers designation to purchase them because… they’re farmland.

    4. I can strongly recommend Cornell’s winery/winemaking certification program. You’ll get a certificate which the government loves when you go to apply for your tax licenses to manufacture alcoholic beverages. UC Davis has a good program as well. I’m sure there are more such programs but those are the 2 I looked into when I was bored and thinking about doing something “different”…

    As far as land goes – look north from you in Hyogo – the interior of Hyogo is crazy depopulated, hilly, with good soil and drainage – and most of all cheap as all hell. You can pick up literal hectares there with an old but liveable kominka for a few million JPY. Okayama as well.

17. Sorry I don’t have an answer I just want to say that this is exactly what this sub should be for, something google simply can’t answer

18. For allotments, Google シェア畑 or レンタル畑.

    And my (minimal, uneducated) experience with grapes is that it may take quite a while. The previous owners of my childhood house had grape vines and the fruit was always very bitter. We were told it would take a while for the flavor to “come in,” and after about a decade, it was much less sour but the sweetness hadn’t started to develop at all. Dunno if that’s a weird fluke or the specific variety of grape or what.

    Good luck!

19. Japan does grow a variety of grapes, and does export them to East Asia.

    In Osaka, we have Katashimo winery in Kashihara, and if you go further to Ikoma Nara, where I live, we have many farmers that grow a variety of grapes, some of them being offered to the imperial family and some get to export overseas.

    If you really want to be a grape farmer and start branding your own winery, now is the best time you should start. Those famers are getting old, and many of them are having difficulty to have a successor. There are many abandoned farms which you should find easy to rent and some maybe even happy to offer to help you grow if you are totally new to this.

20. Grapes are very common in Japan, they are not grown in the style of vineyards, in rows. However, north of Tokyo in Saitama and Gunma you can see scores of fields growing from cultivated trees.

    It will take time for the vine to mature and you will need plenty of soil. The problem is the take it takes to mature a plant and the limited yield you will get. You would need a minimum 4m squared (2x2m) would be the absolute minimum space you would need. Allotments tend to have specific soft spoil, so the first thing you should research is soil types, irrigation and root depths need to plant, then go from there.

    Also any plant should be on the southerly facing slope or side of a building to get as much light as possible.

21. I think you need to put like seeds in the ground or something. And like make sure it gets water and sunlight and stuff.

22. As some others have said, home winemaking is illegal in Japan. You need a license to produce wine (or any other alcoholic beverages).
    The standard license requires a minimum production of 6,000 liters per year, thought there are special dispensations available in some districts.

    Getting an alcohol production license is a pretty difficult thing, and will require demonstrating sufficient knowledge of the winemaking process (through experience at a commercial winery, study at a certified training facility, etc), and a viable business plan.
    The business plan will need to include a credible explanation as to both how you will source the quantity of grapes necessary and how you will sell that amount of wine.

    Your best bet in getting started is to find a friendly winery nearby (there are a number of them in Kansai), visit, explain your interests, and see if you can some sort of informal apprenticeship (non-salaried). They’ll be very helpful in guiding you through some of the steps of the process if you are sincere and work hard to prove yourself.

    Many rural regions of Japan are looking to bring in younger people to offset the on-going depopulation trend. They’ve set their sights on developing a local wine industry (however modest) as a possible way to do this. So the local city halls can be very helpful in getting you started: finding land, helping you apply for govt subsidies, and the like.
    Best to wait until you have experience under your belt and know a bit about what you hope to achieve. Going to them with a vague “dream” will likely get you the cold shoulder and will probably queer your chances of working with them in the future.

    Finally, in winemaking, as in real estate, the three things that are most important are “location, location, and location”.
    Japan is a difficult place to grow a good wine grape regardless of where you are. It can be done, but it ain’t easy.
    Some places are far better than others. And location will determine what grape varieties you can grow, and how you need to farm (largely as a function of weather and soil conditions).
    So look into well before jumping in with both feet.

23. You can start growing on your balcony, but you’ll struggle to get enough grapes to make wine unless you have a lot of space, or you are okay with just making one bottle.

    Either way, making quality wine will always be a challenge due to the climate.

24. There are a few regular single family homes around Tokyo where grapes are grown, usually on a thingy that’s extended from the 2F balcony. It looks very much like wisteria support.

25. i live in tokyo – a 2 story house in my neighborhood grows grapes on their balcony/side of their house

26. Q: How to make a million bucks in the wine business?

    A: Start with 10 million.

27. > I’m going to volunteer in some wineries soon

    For the time being, this is all you need to do.

    Any info on grape growing in the Kansai area that’s not specifically for making wine is completely useless to you because they’re different grape varieties being grown for a completely different purpose (eating or juice or whatever).

    [Here is a list of wineries in the Kansai area](https://www.osakakansai-wine.com/pdf/winery_tour.pdf). Kansai is not *known* for producing particularly good wines, so your mileage may vary. [Areas known for producing award winning wines](https://cluboenologique.com/review/best-japanese-wine/) are Yamanashi, Hokkaido, Hiroshima, Yamagata, and Nagano. Everywhere else is *probably* gross or weird tasting as wines go.

    Japan has a school of wine making that basically produces slightly alcoholic grape juice that tastes like it’s gone off, or like there’s spit in it. Some people like it, but it’s not “wine” in the sense that wine anywhere else in the world is considered wine.

    So most of the local wineries located throughout Japan that aren’t part of Japan’s main wine making areas tend to produce that kind of “grape juice” wine. Their methods and grape varieties may be different than standard for all I know.

    So if you care about that sort of thing at all, taste the wine made at the winery before you volunteer there.

28. Japan is actually pretty decent as a grape growing country. I don’t know how exactly to go about it but they do grow both eating grapes (Muscat 巨蜂 Night Queen) and wine grapes. My uni’s farm grows a variety of both and has their own brand of wine.

    Maybe you could start by giving your local JA office a visit and looking around for grape farm related part time jobs/baito – frequently recruits during harvesting season, though I can see older farmers also hiring during the pruning timeframe.

    If you’re ok with moving out into deep Inaka, even better- a problem with the aging population and everyone moving out into cities is abandoned farmland. You probably have to have some qualifications, show that you do know what you’re doing and are passionate but I’m sure a lot of the people in charge would be very happy if someone just offered to pick up and start using those lands for productive purposes again.

29. There is a huge difference between growing grapes and making wine. Viticulture/horticulture will help you learn how to grow good grapes but that knowledge won’t help you with wine-making. Wine-making deals with things like fermentation, temperature stabilization, and filtration.

    Growing grapes is very land and water intensive and is not something that can be done on a balcony. You need lots of land and water because grape vines need lots of sun for photosynthesis and lots of water since grapes have a very high respiration and poor water retention. It takes years to grow and develop a grape vine. To grow enough grapes to make even 1 bottle of wine would require roughly 10 clusters of grapes. Each grape vine can potentially produce around 40 clusters, but you would usually prune each vine and reduce the number of clusters on each vine so that more resources can go into each cluster or you would have poor grapes, which is why each wine-producing vine usually holds around 5 or 6 clusters. This is why you’d need so much land, as you’d need to have lots of grape vines (lots of roots and therefore draw more resources per cluster to develop good grapes), lots of land (so they don’t compete against each other for sun), lots of water (to water all those root systems). The terroir of the grapes will depend on the land you’re growing it on, so you’d need a suitable place to grow grapes or your grape flavor profile will be poor (ex. sweetness, acidity, etc.). There are vineyards in Japan because certain parts of Japan are in the sweet-spot in terms of climate (warm and temperate, not too warm, not too cold) and Japanese wine actually has a pretty good reputation. If you are interested in viticulture, you could study at one of the Japanese vineyards but sufficed to say, there’s a lot to learn and there’s a lot of work involved in growing grapes.

    Wine-making is a completely different discipline but you do not necessarily need to grow your own grapes because you can just buy the grapes instead. You wouldn’t just be buying any random grapes mind you, you’d be buying a contracts worth from a vineyard, so you’ll be taking a chance on whether it’s a good season or not. Wine-making is also very complex as you’d need to regulate the conditions very carefully in order to produce good wine. Things like the pressing/filtration of the grapes, the yeast culture, rate of fermentation, the temperature, the amount of available sugar, the terroir of the grapes, the cask flavor; the list goes on. You could study under a wine-maker at a winery to learn how to make wine, but you would also need your own equipment to properly make wine, along with a temperature-controlled place to mature your wine.

    If you’re serious about owning your own vineyard and your own winery and shipping it across the country, you would need a tremendous amount of capital, probably in the range of about $10,000,000 USD, maybe more. I think making small-batch wine is an attainable dream as you can just buy a grape contract but I don’t think owning your own vineyard is very realistic. Making a living off of your wine is pretty much…impossible. The artisan boom of small-batch products whether that’s wine or beer is kind of dead as the market is being saturated by all these small labels and consolidation is happening (i.e. a small number of successful small-batch producers are acquired while the majority of small-batchs producers exit the market). There are lots of other business considerations beyond production such as financing or marketing so if you’re serious about this beyond a hobby and operate as a business, be aware that this is a tremendous undertaking with a lot of hard work and even more risk.

30. There’s at least 3 vineyards and wineries in Osaka. Maybe work for them and then branch out? (I might do the same, now I think of it!) On a side note, they grow grapes in the snow at wineries in Yoichi, in Hokkaido. (Check Google maps for links.) was amazed when I went there a few months ago and saw the vineyards. Absolutely beautiful!

31. I remember watching NHK a couple years ago where they asked French people to blind taste test French vs Japanese wine, and they had a hard time or couldn’t.

32. Every success story began with a dream