"Industrializing
agriculture" Daiwa House Industry, whose business operations center on construction,
has developed a vegetable-grower unit aimed at helping "industrialize" agriculture.
This work was undertaken by our research staff, who boldly tackled a large number of difficult issues.

You don't need a field to grow vegetables – just an area the size of one parking space. We're not talking about greenhouses here. Our "agri-cube" product is a scientifically designed vegetable-grower unit fitted with all the equipment needed for efficient hydroponic cultivation, including special lighting. Shigeto Inoue of our Central Research Laboratory, who has played a leading role in the development of the "agri-cube," has succeeded in producing a commercially viable vegetable-growing factory, a feat that had previously eluded the staff not only of Daiwa House Industry but also of Group-member Daiwa Lease, whose staff have cooperated in this project.

At the press release for the "agri-cube," faced with a number of journalists who were wondering why on earth a construction company like Daiwa House would develop a vegetable-growing factory, Mr. Inoue declared that the development of the "agri-cube" had opened up completely new prospects in the agricultural industry.

"The industrialization of agriculture"

Press conference to announce the "agri-cube"

Two-and-a-half years ago, Mr. Inoue had been charged by Daiwa House Chairman and CEO Takeo Higuchi with the mission of finding a way of industrializing agriculture. At first, he didn't know what to do or where to start.

But then he began to realize that, against the background of serious social problems – Japan's declining food self-sufficiency, growing concern over food safety, and the aging of the country's work force in the farming sector – here was a chance for the Daiwa House Group to offer a solution to these issues via its business operations.

Mr. Inoue worked closely with the staff of the Management Planning Department – which is responsible for developing new business operations – to research ways of industrializing agriculture. After six months of such efforts, they had accumulated a vast amount of data, but no concrete achievements. The business strategies that the staff of the Management Planning Department took for granted – even the technical jargon they used – were completely foreign to Mr. Inoue, and he took to reading books in search of the path to a breakthrough. In fact, he read more books during this period than he had ever done before. It was while reading a book one day that he came across words that shone a light on the path that lay before him.

Those words were: "When you are unsure, go back to the basics." He thought: "Yes, of course! When all your experiments keep failing, to start again from the beginning may seem like a long way round, but it's actually the best shortcut." Suddenly, the fog lifted, and he could see the way forward.

Just around that time, Mr. Inoue had recently been to a trade show where he had seen a vegetable-growing factory, and his reaction was simultaneously to see future potential and also to harbor doubts. "Why haven't these things become popular and widespread before now?" Thinking about it, a simple answer presented itself. The problem lay in the cost of the necessary initial investment in the equipment, as well as a building to house the equipment, plus the running costs.

This was where Daiwa House's expertise came in, he thought. The concept of the "industrialization of construction" lay at the core of the very foundation of Daiwa House. By "pre-manufacturing" most of the materials for a house in a factory, ready for simple assembly on site, the Company had been able to realize high-quality homes faster and at lower cost than with the previous methods. Mr. Inoue saw that the concept could equally be applied to the production of food. Instead of producing food in fields (the meaning of "agriculture") the answer was to develop an original form of pre-manufactured factory for growing vegetables.

A tasting of the vegetables grown in the unit with a group of chefs from major hotels

In April 2009 they commenced a process of trial and error with the goal of creating a commercially viable product. Working together with Daiwa Lease, they came up with one idea after another and put them into trial production. Just at that time, they came across a temporary unit created by Daiwa Lease. As soon as he saw it, Mr. Inoue exclaimed: "That's it!" and decided to use it in a space they had reserved at a trade fair showcasing greening and technologies. They manufactured the unit at a factory and transported it to the trade fair location, without need for assembly at site. In this way, they recreated Daiwa House's first major success, with a product that was high-quality, quickly manufactured, and inexpensive.

They paid particular attention to the size of the unit. It was necessary to create a unit that could be transported in a four-ton truck but would still contain all the required vegetable-growing shelves and air-conditioning equipment. To reduce manufacturing costs, existing components and materials used in housing and other construction products were employed. For the entrance/exit to the growing room, they used a bathroom door from an existing Daiwa House housing product.

When the project was just about completed, they encountered frustrating design problems, and eventually came up with a futuristic design whose exterior could be customized. They arranged a tasting of the vegetables grown in the unit with a group of chefs from major hotels, and constant readjustment of the formula for the nutrient solution used in cultivating the vegetables was conducted right up to the final stage.

In April 2012, two-and-a-half years after the Company's management made the decision to embark on the industrialization of agriculture, the "agri-cube" was born.

What kept Mr. Inoue going during the long and exhausting process of developing the "agri-cube" was the cooperation provided by the researchers at Daiwa House and the production staff at Daiwa Lease.

Yoshitomo Ono, one of those researchers, was initially rather undecided about the merits of this unusual project. "At first, it seemed that the idea of a vegetable-growing factory had nothing in common with construction – the Company's main business line – but then I realized that precisely because it was completely new departure, we had an opportunity to exercise our imagination and creativity in a completely unfettered way. At any rate, I determined to find a concrete solution to the problems faced by society. At Daiwa House, we were determined to find a concrete solution to the problems faced by society. The Company has grown to its present scale by repeatedly solving new problems in this way, and this is why I intend to always ask myself what the next new thing is."

Young researcher Shinya Okamura studied vegetable cultivation techniques at college. "I conducted research at college into the metabolic rhythms of plants. I continued these studies after joining Daiwa House, and I have been lucky enough to succeed in cultivating completely new products."

Test model of the "agri-cube"

Hirotoshi Morita, who was working in the Product Development Section of Daiwa Lease during the development of the "agri-cube," put considerable effort into designing a system of mass-production. "When I receive a difficult request it makes me want to overcome the problems involved. The challenges were to cram as many features and as much function as possible into a small unit, and to find the best exterior design. There was plenty here to stretch my capabilities to the utmost."

Yoshinobu Kumagaya of Daiwa Lease, who had taken part in the project right from the planning stage, has made good use of his agricultural studies, and is now thinking carefully about the next step to take. "I believe that it might be possible to reactivate regional communities through a new approach to agriculture. As long as we are alert to the whole spectrum of social changes on a day-to-day basis, and put our efforts into studying their implications, we should be able to respond immediately when a new theme makes its appearance."

These five men formed a single team. They worked all through the night to be able to present a model vegetable growing factory at one of our commercial facilities. They talked and exchanged information and insights that crossed the boundaries between their personal job categories. Together, they watched the sun come up, and through their development of the "agri-cube," each one of them discovered new possibilities within himself.