41: Meet Japan’s Most Famous Farmer Supplying Asia’s Top Restaurants

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The Market Gardener Podcast

JM Fortier

42 episodes

6 days ago

Welcome to The Market Gardener Podcast! Join hosts JM Fortier and Chris Moran as they engage with influential members of the global small-scale farming and organic regenerative agriculture community. Our podcast is your gateway to insightful conversations about farming, food, small businesses, and thought leadership in the world of sustainable agriculture. We're here to shine a positive light on the practices and principles that drive small-scale farming, agroecology, and community building. Tune in for high-level discussions that inspire and empower a new era of positive farming.

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41: Meet Japan’s Most Famous Farmer Supplying Asia’s Top Restaurants | Yuzuru Kajiya

The Market Gardener Podcast

1 hour 51 minutes 11 seconds

3 weeks ago

41: Meet Japan’s Most Famous Farmer Supplying Asia’s Top Restaurants | Yuzuru Kajiya

In this episode, we sit down with Yuzuru Kajiya, a famous farmer from Japan who supplies top-tier, three-star Michelin restaurants across Japan and Asia. Yuzuru shares his journey from touring elite French restaurants in his youth to starting his own farm focused on growing unique, exotic, and high-quality produce, a contrast to traditional Japanese farming. We explore Japanese culture and how values like craftsmanship and perfection translate into his farm and the restaurants he works with, and how Japan’s uniquely low land cost is failing to attract new young farmers. Yuzuru also reflects on how his Canadian education in horticulture and exposure to Western culture shaped his mindset, enabling him to succeed by adopting new methods and focusing on the culinary farmer niche.

Consider this episode your gateway into Japanese farm and food culture; we’re sure you’ll find it as interesting as we did!

Kajiya Farm: https://kajiyafarm.jp/

Timestamps

[0:00] Intro

[8:00] Yuzuru’s farming education and youth in Canada

[10:18] Touring 3-Star Michelin restaurants around the world

[13:15] Discovering unique farmers in Europe and Asafumi Yamashita’s influence

[24:18] Yuzuru’s strategy to focus on unique, exotic crops and direct sales to chefs

[27:31] The taste-test trip to Paris to gain confidence and connections

[30:42] Business explodes with the launch of the Michelin Tokyo guide

[32:01] Finding and training the right workforce

[43:24] Japan's changing economy and the farming landscape