Top > What's up around the Prime Minister > February, 2005

Prime Minister Koizumi visits Underground Farming Space Thursday, February 24, 2005 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited a farming space created in a basement floor of a building in the Tokyo metropolitan area. A human resources company that also engages in agricultural training activities transformed a second basement floor which was used as a volt by a major commercial bank until January 2004 into an "underground farming space." The produce grown in the underground space includes tomatoes, butter lettuce, rice and strawberries. In this farming space, vegetables are grown without using soil through tank farming and temperature and artificial lighting such as light emitting diodes (LED) are controlled by computers. The president of the human resources company who launched this "underground farming space" remarked, "The reason why I specifically chose this space in a basement floor that gets no sunlight was because I wanted people to be able to experience agriculture that utilizes cutting-edge technologies in the metropolitan area as easily as commuting to work, without having to go to rural regions. I am hoping that people will be able to deepen their understanding and interest in agriculture through such space." Visiting the underground farming space, Prime Minister Koizumi observed the tomatoes and other vegetables grown there with his hands and said, "This is a revolution in agriculture. This will also lead to employment, and I thus see great potential in this idea."