As rice consumption has declined across Japan, Japanese farmers have had to contend with dwindling incomes, but not so for the farmers of Inakadate village in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture. Since 1993, these industrious farmers have been planting different varieties of rice in paddy fields every year to create stunning works of art to attract visitors.
Today, more than 100,000 visitors a year flock to the 8,000-population village to admire the farmers’ gigantic artworks from atop an observation tower1. Visitors can even order locally-produced rice simply by snapping a photo of the rice paddy art with their mobile phones2.
Finding ways to overcome challenges is ingrained in the Japanese culture. Japan has built a highly productive labour force and infrastructure network to compensate for its lack of natural resources. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017–2018, Japan is ranked third in Asia after Singapore and Hong Kong3.
As an active asset manager, we seek to use our global expertise and deep Asian insights to capture investment opportunities in Asia and around the world. Discover our insights here.