Japan targets 4.6 trillion yen in plant factory investment by 2040
Farmers relying mainly on agriculture for income now number fewer than one million, while companies pursue AI, robotics and aquaponics indoors.
- Japan's government has set a target for 4.6 trillion yen in combined public and private investment in plant factories by the fiscal year 2040.
- The investment aims to sustain agricultural production and counter a severe shortage of farmers, whose numbers are projected to fall by more than half between 2010 and 2026.
- This initiative promotes the adoption of advanced technologies like AI, robotics, and aquaponics to improve the efficiency and profitability of indoor farming.
- The investment is needed to overcome significant economic challenges for plant factories, including high initial capital expenditure and electricity costs that have led to some business failures.
Japan is seeking to sustain agricultural production while confronting a growing shortage of farmers.
Agriculture ministry figures put the number of people whose primary income comes from farming at about 980,000 in 2026, compared with roughly 2.05 million in 2010.
The government wants greater participation from industries outside agriculture and wider adoption of advanced technology.
It has set a target of 4.6 trillion yen in combined public and private investment in plant factories by fiscal 2040.
Plant factories have already become more numerous, with about 440 operating across Japan, 1.4 times the total a decade earlier.
Their economics remain challenging, however, because establishing such facilities requires high initial expenditure.
Some operators have gone bankrupt after failing to recover their costs.
“Even if we can reduce the number of workers, achieving profitability will remain difficult if capital investment and electricity costs swell,” a plant factory manager said.
The comment reflected the challenges involved in improving productivity and creating added value.
Businesses are meanwhile exploring various uses of AI and sensor technology to increase the efficiency of indoor production.
In one such initiative, telecommunications operator NTT EAST, Inc. and other companies launched a Tokyo trial in June that raises Japanese nishikigoi ornamental carp alongside ginseng.
The trial uses aquaponics, which links aquaculture with hydroponics, the cultivation of plants without soil.
AI and sensors regulate lighting and temperature, reducing the cultivation period before shipment from years under conventional outdoor farming to months.
Fish faeces serve as fertiliser in place of agricultural chemicals.
NTT East said the system also enables leaves and stems containing valuable ingredients, which were previously discarded, to be put to commercial use.
Oishii Farm Corporation is taking another approach through a new research and development base in Hamura, western Tokyo.
The company, which operates a strawberry factory in the United States, intends to devise efficient indoor-growing methods for other crops, including tomatoes.
Its plans also cover robots designed to plant crops and package produce automatically.
A 95% pollination rate has been achieved for Oishii’s strawberries after AI was introduced to manage the breeding environment of the bees essential to the process.
“We're able to achieve hundreds of years' worth of traditional outdoor breeding progress within a single year,” said Hiroki Koga, co-founder and chief executive of Oishii Farm.
He cited the absence of seasonal and weather constraints as an advantage of plant factories.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
