On a main street in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district, alongside the glittering storefronts of Tiffany, Bulgari and other luxury brands, the flagship store of stationery retailer Itoya Ltd. tends a very unusual “farm.”

A roughly 60-square-meter hydroponic farm was installed on the 11th floor when the Itoya building was rebuilt in 2015.

Up to 200 heads of lettuce are grown pesticide-free, and then made into a fig and blue cheese salad. The salad is served in a cafe in the building for 1,750 yen ($11.30), including tax.

The company harvests about 20 kilograms of lettuce a day while foreign tourists with shopping bags watch curiously through the windows and take pictures.

“It is one of our goals to make the shop a comfortable place for customers to spend time at, not just buy stationery,” a representative said.

Itoya’s farm is one example of “plant factories” that grow vegetables indoors for on-site consumption regardless of the outside weather.

Lighting and temperature in plant factories are carefully controlled.

Plant factories have attracted attention as the prices of vegetables grown outdoors rise due to climate change, with new entrants from different industries throwing their hats in the ring.

Leaf Factory Tokyo Co. grows vegetables inside a four-story building in a residential area of the capital’s Ota Ward near Haneda Airport.

Its parent company is Otsuka Tekko Co., an iron factory that manufactures auto parts.

It started growing vegetables at its head office on a trial basis in 2020 before going on a full-scale basis in 2023.

It currently grows lettuce, basil, spinach and five other varieties of vegetables, harvesting up to 2,000 heads.

Many colors of LED lights are used to grow the vegetables, and changing the light colors, from blue to red for example, will change the bitterness and color of the produce.

After harvesting, the vegetables are shipped to nearby restaurants or sold in the company’s shop on the first floor.

In Ota Ward, there are only two hectares of farmland—about half the size of a baseball stadium.

“I want to create a model case for young people to work in agriculture in metropolitan areas with little farmland,” said President Akihiro Otsuka.

In 2020, Plants Laboratory Inc. provided Seiyu Co., a supermarket chain, with a plant factory system jointly developed with the University of Tokyo.

The Tokyo-based startup has founded vegetable factories at two Seiyu outlets in the capital, and the harvested produce is sold at 133 stores in the Kanto region.

According to Plants Laboratory, it has partnered with Tohoku Electric Power Co., Hokkaido Electric Power Co. and other companies to set up plant factories around the country.

Vegetables are shipped to supermarket stores and hotels in nearby areas.

DEMAND EXPANSION EXPECTED

According to the agriculture ministry, the number of plant factories in Japan has risen from 93 in March 2011 to 432 in February 2024.

Those that use LED lights and other artificial light sources make up the largest group at 195. While 194 facilities harness natural sunlight, 43 use both natural sunlight and artificial sources.

According to an estimate by Yano Research Institute Ltd., a market research company in Tokyo, the market for lettuce plant factories using only artificial lighting peaked at 22.3 billion yen in the business year ending in March 2022. Since then, the market has faced difficulties in growing further as operators withdraw their businesses and the industry is restructured.

There are also challenges to overcome.

While utility bills are soaring, large-scale plant factories are located far from urban areas, leading to increased transportation costs.

However, prices of vegetables grown outdoors have fluctuated rapidly in recent years because of the severe summer heat and unseasonable weather.

Demand for plant factory-grown vegetables has been growing since the supply and quality is easier to control.

The market is expected to be worth 24 billion yen in the business year ending in March 2029, according to the Yano Research Institute.

FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE

Hiroyuki Watanabe, a professor at Tamagawa University specializing in plant environment control studies who is well-versed in plant factories, said they are unsuitable to grow wheat, rice and other grain crops that require large spaces.

However, plant factories can steadily produce some kinds of vegetables even with limited space.

“It is becoming difficult to grow vegetables because of global warming and extreme weather events,” he said.

“Although there are challenges to generating profits, growing vegetables at plant factories can be a form of agriculture in the future.”