Urban farming in Tokyo 159writer Naoki Shiomi, has begun to receive attention. “Half-farmer-half-X” refers
to a new lifestyle in which individuals engage in small-scale farming (agro-
activities) while, at the same time, engaging in work (X) that represents true value
to the individual (Shiomi 2003). The possibilities for X are extremely diverse,
ranging from half-farmer–half-artist to half-farmer–half-NPO worker or half-
farmer-half-community business owner. Meanwhile, among the various potential
Xs one might embrace, the other half of one’s lifestyle is based in agro-activities.
Agro-activities, in this case, represent play-work that indivisibly integrates both
an element of livelihood as an activity aimed at securing of nutrients (food)
for human sustenance and an element of play as an activity that enables one to
attain a sense of mental satisfaction by interacting with nature. Given that half
of one’s income is earned through X, it is not necessary to rely on “agriculture”
as a predominantly economic activity, while the converse is also true. Given that
some level of food can be secured through agro-activities, it is neither necessary
to rely solely on X for income required for survival nor is it necessary to engage
excessively in X, by working long hours and so on, exclusively for the purpose of
securing life. In the context of half-farmer-half-X, agro-activities represent play-
work for the purpose of attaining personal emotional satisfaction and serve as a
foundation for and guarantee required to realize “worthwhile” work (X).
While city-based agriculture in Japan can simply appear to be recreational
activities for urban residents, as we have suggested, such practices can also be read as
an expression of both a new attitude toward work in present-day Japan and historical
forms of play-work. Such activities are aligned with the Japanese tendency to merge
opposing concepts such as labor and leisure and as such are deeply connected with
Japan’s unique culture. Thus, while urban farming in Japan and elsewhere can be
understood in terms of a growing engagement with everyday environmentalism and
lifestyle-based civic values (Lewis 2015), such practices also have a particular social,
cultural, and historical resonance in the Japanese context.
Japanese urban-rural cities
Tokyo has a unique cityscape, comprising both urban and agricultural environments
due to the rapid migration of the rural population to the city center and lax land-
use regulation. This unique characteristic of Tokyo’s population and landscape
allows the development of an eco-lifestyle, such as the half-farmer-half-X, play-
work hybrid. The mixed land use in Tokyo blurs the boundary between urban land
and agricultural land. In fact, a more detailed look reveals that farms are peppered
throughout the city (Figure 11.2). This landscape feature results in the formation
of a heterogenic environment consisting of a mixture of urban and agricultural
usage that does not exhibit the same kind of clear perimeter and division typically
observed in Western cities, whereby the area within the perimeter is clearly urban
while outer areas are clearly agricultural or rural (Yokohari et al. 2000).
What kind of process, then, led to the formation of this intermingling of city
and farms? Tokyo began to expand in population in the latter half of the nineteenth
century. Experiencing the end of more than 250 years of isolation and the formation