Most of Japanese land are hilly districts and mountanious regions because the gracier did not cover Japan. Therefore, people had to cooperate for growing and harvesting rice becasue of the land feature. About 60 % of Japanese country is still mountanious region and is covered by forest. Each region has a special product based on the climate, the soil type, and the features of the land. There are stock farms, crop farms, tea farms, flower farms, and etc... Many festivals in Japan are usually related to agriculture. However, there are also some problems.
About 60 % of Japanese land is mountanious region and covered by forest. So people must make good use of available lands. This is one of reason why there are many terraced fields. Those fields are sometimes for crops and fruits. For example, a hillside is used for planting mandarin orange trees. There are also other hillside crops. If you see the hill from a distance place, the hill looks as if it has patches. The patches of color of the hillside are dark green, dark brown, light green, and white. Why is there a white color patch? Because a greenhouse is sometimes on the hillside.
Each prefecture usually has special products including food, art work, and drink. Those things attract people to visit other regions. Therefore, people tend to get those products when they travel around. However, it does not mean that people cannot get those products in their regions because of a high distribution system. Vegetable and seafood that are in season are shipped to stores. A price of food in season usually becomes less expencsive because of a high amount of harvest. For example, apples are sold in a store throughout the year, but the harvest time of apples is in winter. So the price of an apple is cheaper in winter. Moreover, the price is dependant on where the apple is cultivated and what kind of apple it is.
Japanese people were an agricultural tribe. They used to grow and havest 100 % of their food in the ancient period. However, the number of farmers is decreasing as time goes. Only 40 % of the crops currently consumed are produced in Japan, and 60 % of the crops are imported from other countries. It would be hard for Japanese to get food if those countries, which export the crops to Japan, have a bad harvest or are in a state of war. Therefore, institutions of agriculture in Japan try to raise the degree of self-sufficiency in the crops produced. There are a couple of reasons for why the number of farmers dropped. Two reasons are the importation of crops and the difficulty in farming.
Examples of imported food:
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