Why are farms and rural villages being abandoned? Both seem poverty-stricken; employment opportunities are scarce; so their residents pull up stakes, leave, and never return. Very few people make their living in agriculture in modern Japan, and the major of those who do are of retirement age—and they are certainly not urging their children to “get into agriculture!” and join this strange world. And without a next generation—what will become of agriculture? We believe first & foremost that agriculture must be an industry in which workers can earn a living. We also believe that agriculture must be an industry that anyone can enter, where earnings are dependent upon hard work and ingenuity, and that can be developed and forge ties with the next generation.

Nohju began with a salaryman involved in Japan’s domestic environment and with agricultural & community development in developing nations. Without any personal funding or background in agriculture, Nakatsukuma Toshihisa’s success in the field made all the more of an impact and became a case study. And so, in 1995, Toshihisa left his job as a salaryman to become a farmer and found Nohju.

In 2011, the Tohoku earthquake struck Japan. Nohju’s rice was used in the provision of relief supplies. Toshihisa’s eldest son Kazuki, who was involved in the transport of the rice, left school and took the opportunity to join Nohju. Toshihisa had high hopes in the agriculture industry and was beginning to make waves but faced continued hardships; together with his son, he redoubled his determination to continue down his chosen path to his ideal vision of Nohju.
While backpacking abroad, Kazuki also met children and mothers with infants on the street who were suffering from hunger. These experiences led Kazuki to vow to help create “a world without hunger.”

In 2014, father and son incorporated Nohju, with Kazuki as CEO. In 2015, Nohju began to export its products to Taiwan. In the future, Nohju will not only take its brand global; it also plans to cultivate management at home and abroad. Nohju hopes to contribute to food culture and food production through activities ranging from the development of industrial science to management & management followup and market coordination, creating a cycle that promotes growth and richer communities everywhere.

We…

want to continue to be a model farm management community that inspires hope in the next generation,
and as a community, we hope to join together with the world at large and provide a bridge to the future.
We believe that the future will find a world without hunger.