Fujii quits aerospace to revive rural Japan with farm tourism

Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Fujii has swapped designing aircraft after 15 years in aerospace to revive rural Japan through agritourism. At 41, he moved from Tokyo to the remote town of Mima in Tokushima prefecture, where he now runs a farm stay and helps local farmers turn their land into tourist destinations.

Japan’s countryside is emptying fast. Young people leave for cities, leaving behind aging farmers and abandoned fields. Nationwide, the rural population has fallen by 16% in the past decade while farmland sits idle. Fujii saw how venture capital and startups revitalized forgotten US cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh. He realized Japan’s shrinking rural towns could follow a similar path if locals could attract new income streams beyond traditional farming.

Fujii’s project, called “Agritabi,” pairs tourists with farmers for hands-on experiences like rice planting, vegetable harvesting, and cooking local dishes. In Mima, he converted an old farmhouse into a guesthouse where visitors sleep in tatami rooms and eat meals grown on-site. Last year, Agritabi hosted 800 guests, mostly Japanese city dwellers seeking weekend escapes. Fujii charges farmers a small fee to join the platform and takes a cut from bookings, giving rural families a way to earn without leaving home. Local officials say the program has already slowed depopulation in a few villages where neighboring farms report higher sales of produce to tourists.

Next, Fujii plans to expand Agritabi to three more prefectures by 2026. He’s negotiating with regional governments to subsidize travel costs for low-income visitors, hoping to make rural tourism accessible to everyone. If successful, his model could become a blueprint for other shrinking communities across Japan. For now, he’s proof that even in a country built for bullet trains and megacities, small towns can still dream big.