Train station lettuce: Japan railroad grows veggies indoors

May 07, 2021 | News On Japan

May 07, 2021 (Nikkei) - A harried commuter rushes through a Tokyo station hoping to catch the next train home.

But first, a quick stop at a store to pick up a fresh head of lettuce. So fresh, in fact, that it is grown right there at the train station, cultivated using technology to ensure that it is raised under the most optimal conditions.

Tokyo-area rail operator JR East will soon make this possible -- and its stations greener while also cashing in on the indoor farming boom.

The company, officially known as East Japan Railway, borrowed the idea to grow vegetables indoors from German startup Infarm, which counts the rail operator as an investor. Infarm has partnered with the Japanese grocery chain Summit to grow produce using grow lights and sell it on-site.

Since January, a Summit Store in Tokyo's Adachi ward has grown lettuce and other vegetables in giant cases inside the location. At 213 yen ($1.94) per head of lettuce, its almost double the price of lettuce grown outdoors. The store plays up freshness as the selling point.

Infarm has also built indoor farms within stores run by Kinokuniya, JR East's upmarket supermarket subsidiary. A total of five Summit and Kinokuniya stores in the Tokyo area currently host these farms.

Now JR East is looking at expanding the operation to shopping complexes inside train stations. The equipment Infarm provides can be installed in a decentralized manner so that massive greenhouses do not occupy the spaces.

Indoor farming has grown in popularity as a way to limit the ecological impact of conventional farms, which account for 70% of the water used around the world. Global warming and desertification will diminish the area of arable land.

Shifting farms indoors is seen as a way to sustain the agricultural industry. Thanks to automatic controls, the facilities are able to curb the amount of water consumed. Vertical farming, in which crops are grown on walls, in urbanized places like Singapore that have limited farmland will be able to secure large amounts of space to grow food.

Infarm consumes 95% less water than that of an outdoor farm, the company says. Just 2 sq. meters of space can produce yield equivalent to a 250-sq. meters of farmland.

Typhoon No. 29 Moves Away From Japan but High Waves Remain a Threat

Typhoon No. 29 was moving northward over waters east of Japan at strong intensity as of 10 p.m. on October 12th, with forecasts indicating that the storm will continue moving away from the country and transition into an extratropical cyclone on October 13th, although high waves generated by the typhoon could pose a growing threat along the Pacific coast of northern Japan.

AI Breaks Japan's Language Barrier, Fueling Rise in Cyberattacks

Japan is facing a growing wave of cyberattacks as advances in artificial intelligence remove the language barrier that once made Japanese companies difficult targets for overseas hackers, with more than 68 million personal records potentially exposed in a series of security incidents over the past two weeks.

Record-Strong El Nino Expected to Bring Warm Winter to Japan

Japan is expected to experience a warmer-than-normal winter as the El Nino phenomenon currently affecting the Pacific Ocean has reached its strongest level on record, with the Japan Meteorological Agency announcing on October 10th that unusually high sea surface temperatures are likely to persist through the coming winter months.

Otsu Festival Parades Elaborate Floats Following UNESCO Recognition

The Otsu Festival, one of Shiga Prefecture's three major traditional festivals, was held in Otsu City on October 11th, featuring a procession of 13 elaborately decorated floats carrying traditional mechanical puppets through the streets, following the festival's addition to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December last year.

Cyberattacks Spread Across Japan

A series of cyberattacks has disrupted business operations and exposed millions of customer records across Japan, with a ransomware attack on a cloud service provider affecting 495 companies and local governments nationwide, while convenience store operator Lawson has disclosed a separate breach involving more than 2.15 million personal information records.

MEDIA CHANNELS

MORE Society NEWS

Late-Life Divorce in Japan Reaches Record High

The proportion of divorces involving couples married for at least 20 years has reached a record high in Japan, driven by greater financial independence among women and longer life expectancy, with women initiating an estimated 70% to 80% of late-life separations.

House Fire Breaks Out During Wasp Nest Removal

A fire broke out at a home in Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, on October 12th after flames apparently spread to the building during an operation to remove a wasp nest, burning two residential structures and leaving one worker with minor injuries.

Two Killed, Eight Injured in Osaka Danjiri Festival Accidents

Two men were killed and eight others injured in separate accidents involving traditional danjiri festival floats in Osaka Prefecture on October 10, including one incident in which a float overturned while making a sharp turn, crushing a participant beneath it.

Most Sightings of Fugitive Yoichi Hatta Reported in Kanto

Police in Oita Prefecture have revealed that the Kanto region accounts for the largest number of reported sightings of Yoichi Hatta, a fugitive wanted in connection with a fatal hit-and-run incident in Beppu in 2022, with authorities preparing to distribute new wanted posters nationwide from November as the search enters its fifth year.