Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture, is one of Japan’s leading tea-producing regions. Tea plantations facing a crisis of survival are now being visited by young people from the Tokyo metropolitan area and tourists from abroad. Behind this trend is a lesson one young man learned from farming in Zambia.
Junior high school students picking tea in a tea field in Kakegawa City (courtesy of Koshi Hirano).
Dramatic Decrease in Tea Farmers
Kakegawa City is located almost in the middle of the Japanese archipelago and has a beautiful landscape of hilly terrain dotted with tea plantations. Known for its tea plantation farming method, recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a World Agricultural Heritage Site, the city is the largest producer of “deep steamed” tea in Japan, which has a rich and deep flavor.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kakegawa City had approximately 1,400 tea farmers in 2010, but by 2008 there were fewer than 550. Yoshihiro Hagita, manager of the city’s Tea Promotion Division, said, “With the spread of PET bottle products, the amount of leaf tea purchased has drastically decreased, and the price of tea has stagnated. Tea production alone is no longer enough to make a living, and the farmers are aging and facing a serious shortage of successors,” he says.
Scenery of tea fields in Kakegawa City （Provided by Kakegawa City)
Kakegawa is gradually losing its tea plantation scenery. There is a “hands-on farm” that is trying to change that trend.
Kiwi farm visited by 40,000 people a year
Under the kiwi trees, tourists enjoy all-you-can-eat kiwi and barbecue. Kiwifruit Country Japan grows 85 varieties of kiwi on an area about three times the size of the Tokyo Dome, and attracts about 40,000 visitors a year from Japan and abroad.
The farm features an energy-recycling agriculture method named “Kururin Farming”. Kiwi peels eaten by tourists are used as fertilizer for the fields and food for animals. The ashes from barbecues alkalize the soil, and the smoke helps prevent pests and diseases. Koshi Hirano, the garden’s representative, says, “We are trying to learn about the SDGs in a non-stuffy way. He is a former JICA overseas cooperation volunteer.
Koshi Hirano harvesting kiwis at his farm（Provided by Koshi Hirano)
Should I take over? I was wondering whether I should take over or not…
The farm began with a teaspoon of kiwi seeds that his father, Masatoshi, brought back from the United States in 1976. Hirano attended an agricultural high school and studied agriculture in the U.S., but when he was in his early 20s, “I wasn’t attracted to farming, just planting seedlings and harvesting them,” he says.
In my search for a way forward, I recalled the images of overseas trainees who had worked at the farm. They were so passionate about their work that they were determined to learn Japanese techniques and apply them to agriculture in their home countries. He felt such a strong passion for farming in his home country.
I want to work in agriculture with people in developing countries. Determined to do so, Mr. Hirano applied for the JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program in 2012 and was dispatched to Zambia in southern Africa. His two years there changed his life forever.
Koshi Hirano (right) with a farmer in Zambia who was dispatched as a member of a cooperative team（Provided by Koshi Hirano)
Trial and error to improve farmers’ income in Zambia
In the capital city of Lusaka, Mr. Hirano worked with international NGOs and the Ministry of Health on a JICA-supported project to eradicate tuberculosis. In Lusaka, about half of the working population is engaged in agriculture, but their income is very low and they are not very health-conscious. Therefore, she was assigned to provide nutritional guidance through the cultivation of vegetables and fruit trees, and to help farmers improve their income.
The activity site was a low-income residential area called a compound, where a community center with a clinic and farmland was the base of operations. I heard it was a slum, but it was safe, and people were very kind to us, offering us tea and inviting us for meals even though we were very poor,” she says.
Mr. Hirano is trying his hand at freshwater fish farming and low-cost, recycling-oriented agriculture, and he is also trying to open doors for additional income outside of farming, such as by teaching sewing classes and managing a parking lot. One day, however, he was shocked by something the farmers said to him.
Pride” taught by the words of a doctor
The saddest job the poorest man can do is farming.
These words are not personal to Hirano, who was born and raised in a farming family.
Then later, a Zambian doctor replied to the farmers with these words.
It takes a good doctor and a farmer to cure an incurable disease.”
The doctor continued. If you get sick and come to a clinic, you will be given medicine. But even if you recover, if your daily diet is unbalanced, your immune system will be weakened and you will eventually get sick again. If farmers produce delicious vegetables and make sure everyone eats them, that is the best medicine of all. Hearing these words, Mr. Hirano’s heart was filled with emotion.
Let’s go back to Japan and start farming. Mr. Hirano made up his mind.
Vegetable donations at a health center in Zambia, courtesy of Koshi Hirano)
Learning from Zambia, farmland that brings people together
Upon returning to Japan, Mr. Hirano took over his family’s kiwi farming business. When he thought about taking on the challenge of a new type of agriculture, a scene he saw in Zambia gave him a big hint.
Unlike in Japan, the Zambian people used their fields freely. They put a cross under a big mango tree, and on weekends people would come and sing songs. People cooked, people got haircuts, children did their homework, and the farmland became a place for people to gather.
There are many possibilities for farmland.
Hirano also begins a series of attempts to attract people to his kiwi farm. Night yoga, music events, weddings, and a blue sky beauty salon. ……
On the other hand, looking around, tea plantations were being abandoned one after another. The idea was to organize study tours for high schools and companies. High school students from the Tokyo metropolitan area stayed overnight to interview tea farmers and other related people, discuss solutions to Kakegawa’s problems, and make proposals to the city and farmers.
High school students presenting their new ideas after learning at a tea farm (courtesy of Koshi Hirano).
The high school students and producers quickly became familiar with each other through the training. Some elderly people learned from the students how to use social networking services effectively, and some students cried on the last day as they said goodbye. When will you come back next time?” One of the students asked. One of the farmers asked the students, “When are you coming back next?
Connecting Farmers and High School Students
One of the results that came out of this training was a campground converted from abandoned farmland. It all started when students who saw the sunset there said, “I want to sleep here today to see the stars.
In the beginning, some farmers in the area were concerned about whether the tea fields would attract people. But now campers visit every weekend, and some farmers are working hard to make the tea fields more beautiful from the campground,” says Hirano. He says that visitors from other prefectures also come to visit.
After the training, some young people come to work part-time or help out. Daichi Mio, a Tokyo resident, is one of them. I used to drink only bottled tea and didn’t know how to make tea. But when I made and drank the first tea I picked myself, I was impressed by its delicious taste,” says Daichi Mio, who went on to Tokyo University of Agriculture. Mr. Mio went on to Tokyo University of Agriculture. He occasionally stays overnight at the farm to help with the farm work.
Shogo Hirano, a fifth generation tea farmer, said, “More and more people are getting involved in the tea farm, including young people and foreigners. Koshi Hirano is making not only ‘things’ but also ‘things’. I am inspired by the fact that this is also agriculture. Mr. Hagita, a Kakegawa city official, also commented, “It is difficult for farmers to maintain tea fields on their own. We are very grateful that Mr. Hirano is giving back his experience in Zambia and making Kakegawa more prosperous.
Daichi Mio (left) and Koshi Hirano visited Kakegawa City (courtesy of Daichi Mio)
And now, Mr. Hirano is tackling a new challenge. It is to “return the favor” to Zambia, which gave him various ideas for agriculture in Kakegawa.
Koshi Hirano presenting at BLUE’s pitch competition (Courtesy of Koshi Hirano)
Giving Back to Zambia, Dreams for the Future
When Mr. Hirano learned that JICA’s “BLUE” project had started in 2024 to help returnees start their own businesses, he did not hesitate to raise his hand. This was because he had regrets about his activities in Zambia, which aimed to improve farmers’ earnings.
After a three-month program, “Blueberry Business to Improve Income of Small Farmers in Zambia” was launched. Blueberries, which are rich in nutrients and sell well to the wealthy, are an easy fruit to grow on small plots of land. With the cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture, we will start demonstration trials in February 2025. Right now, I spend my days traveling back and forth between Zambia and Kakegawa.
Having found a new identity in Zambia, Hirano says, “I was lucky to be born in Japan, where there are opportunities for cooperatives. I would like to work together to boost agriculture in Africa and Japan.
More pride for farmers. The desire that sprouted from international cooperation will continue to spread across borders, connecting people and spreading even further.
© Source JICA