Strawberry Production in Japan: History and Progress in Production Technology and Cultivar Development

In Japan, there are more than 25,000 strawberry farms totaling 6360 ha. Over 95% of the acreage is in an annual hill culture system and covered with polyethylene plastic to force June-bearing cultivars, such as Tochiotome and Saga-honoka to produce fruit from late fall to early summer. In the late 1960s, a forcing technique was developed that advanced flower bud initiation to late summer and prevented the transplants from becoming dormant in the winter. The new forcing technique involved nitrogen starvation of nursery plants, growing the transplants in walk-in tunnels with no chilling and a long-day photoperiod condition, and applying gibberellic acid before the onset of endodormancy. Until about 1970, strawberry growers in Japan used runner plants produced in waiting-beds, but now most of the transplants are produced in plastic pots to avoid soil-borne diseases. Recently, the use of tray plants produced from hanging runner cuttings has become popular. Most of the strawberries in Japan are grown in soil using the annual hill culture system. To offer better working conditions for plant management and fruit picking, low cost substrate culture systems and bench-top production systems are now used by over 1,800 farmers throughout Japan totaling over 470 ha in production.