With traditional family farms on the wane, corporations in #Japan are increasingly entering the agriculture sector, taking advantage of an updated law allowing them to lease farmland across the country. Of the roughly 2,000 corporations that have entered the agriculture sector, food companies accounted for 23 percent, family farms and stock-breeding companies 22 percent and construction firms 10 percent. Meanwhile, schools, medical institutions, social welfare corporations and nonprofit organizations represent a quarter of new institutional entrants into agriculture, according to Shinichi Shogenji, professor at the Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences at Nagoya University.

(Photo: Shigeru Yajima, president of Morishige Bussan Co., takes a close look at perilla, his firm is growing in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, in July. | KYODO)