The Future of Food in Japan: Interviews with Organic Farmers

Abstract In Spring 2024, with funding from the Japan Foundation, we traveled to Japan to interview organic farmers. We talked to Yae Fujimoto, a second-generation organic farmer who carries on her father's mission to return Japan to its rural roots in Kamogawa; Raymond Epp, a farmer and teacher outside Sapporo and the first to translate “regenerative farming” into Japanese; and Takumi Watanabe, who ditched the corporate grind at age 24 to grow persimmons in Ibaraki. Our interviews help us reflect on the future of food in Japan through its nascent but growing organic movement.