Urban Greenery

        Going through Japan I am often surprised at the amount of rice fields and other "urban" gardens mixed in next to housing. It gave me the impression that growing various flowers,vegetables, and other plants is definitely something that Japanese people do and are fond of. This is in comparison to the volume and size of gardens and other green spaces a person might find in the United States. While there are still people growing vegetables and flowers in the U.S., you would not find the volume of gardening in a similar size city. Asking around I was informed  that most small plots of rice are used only to feed one's family and any small amounts of excess are sold. I was also told that most people just enjoy growing flowers and other non edible plants too. It seems 5 years ago gardening was very popular in the Katano area, but recently it has dropped off, although I hardly had to leave the house to find gardens to photograph.

     Getting into the geographic layout of Japan was the most obvious answer to why gardening and small agriculture spaces are intermingled within most mid sized cities. Most of the country is very mountainous and uninhabitable, I was able to find a dated website with some statistics (although the geographic layout of the country has not dramatically changed in the past 10 years, which is what I was looking for statistics on): http://poza.net/japan/living4.html . Surprisingly urban farming is on the decline in Japan because of many factors from taxes to agrobusiness, despite being a substantial part of food consumed in the country. http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/japan’s-urban-agriculture-cultivating-sustainability-and-wellbeing/ Possible the mindset of "going green" will reverse this tide, but it is difficult to tell at the moment.