A light truck rumbled along a road by a cabbage field in Kumamoto Prefecture, alongside large dump trucks loaded with materials on a recent day. 

Across from the field was a massive building with new glass windows that constituted the first Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) chip-making plant in Japan. 

Toshiharu Furusho, 68, who runs a dairy farm in Ozu town, near the Kikuyo factory, wore a bitter look on his face.

“I heard that six hectares of forested mountain land over there were sold in a flash,” he said. “I am being asked to let go of seven hectares of land, including rented ground, for providing a site to a chip-related company’s facilities.”

Farmers in Kumamoto Prefecture are struggling with a dire shortage of agricultural land due to the new plant.

A range of businesses are arriving in Kumamoto in connection with the global chip giant’s expansion into Kikuyo, contributing to brisk land transactions in the community. 

The economic boom is, however, posing a challenge in the farming sector of one of the leading farming areas in the Kyushu region.

VAST LAND FOR CATTLE

Six tons of feed per day are needed to keep Furusho's 200 Holsteins at his stock farm.

To provide a food source for his cattle, Furusho grows corn and grass in fields totaling 20 hectares. Some of the farmland is leased.

Furusho’s production is in line with the central government’s policy of increasing the volume of domestically produced fodder, while imported feed is utilized at his farm as well.

His neighborhood is known as the center of the largest dairy farming prefecture in western Japan. Farmers have been moving to achieve self-sufficiency in providing feed for their livestock.

However, the agricultural zone is currently being subjected to a rapid development process. Farmers are now being asked to return their leased fields to owners even before the end of their rental contracts.

A farming family had successors but decided that it should not pass on the business for posterity, given the uncertainty over future prospects.

Japan’s food self-sufficiency ratio was 38 percent on a calorie basis as of fiscal 2022. The nation relies heavily on imports for livestock feed and various other food items.

Furusho pointed to the possibility of the imports of agricultural products becoming increasingly difficult, taking into account the recent changes in the global climate and world politics.

“I wonder where goods that should go into the Japanese people's mouths will be able to be produced from here on out,” he stressed. “Even if they become hungry, they cannot eat semiconductors.”

Receiving requests to sell his farmland, Furusho has negotiated with the agencies but tells them that he “will never sell my land unless you prepare another field elsewhere.”

SEEKING UNDERSTANDING, COUNTERMEASURES

The JA Kikuchi agricultural cooperative interviewed local member farmers and found that the area of crop fields had been reduced by at least 25 hectares by July 2023 following the TSMC project.

Primarily abandoned were fields where corn was grown to feed livestock.

Finding new places for farming in close proximity is difficult since those fields need to be large enough for agricultural machinery to operate.

Tetsuya Higashi, head of the JA Kikuchi, called for understanding.

“We have no intention of opposing TSMC’s plan as it is expected to bring massive economic benefits,” he said. “We simply want our circumstances to be understood.”

In February, a request for the introduction of a new agricultural complex was submitted to the farm ministry.

The Kumamoto prefectural government had worked to prevent agricultural fields from being excessively bought up as a result of the arrival of corporations. Its aim was primarily allowing areas that are not suitable for farming to be developed.

But the increasing number of businesses moving into Kumamoto Prefecture made it apparent that the countermeasures were insufficient to stop the loss of farmland. 

The prefectural government is thus looking to provide candidate sites that can substitute for reductions in farmland to municipalities’ agricultural commissions, so that those locations can be referred to farmers.

It also instituted a new system in January to effectively share information with six surrounding municipalities to extend support to farmers.

A problem is that it is unrealistic for the administration side to notice and respond to real estate agencies and land owners that reach verbal agreements for “future sales.”

“We will be restraining destructive development by showing our resolve to protect sites for agricultural purposes,” said a Kumamoto prefectural official. “Kumamoto is a guardian of the nation’s food security. We will be helping farmers continue their livelihoods.”