Under the name of “Tokyo Salad,” the Japanese subway operator Tokyo Metro is growing lettuce, salad greens, and herbs in a hydroponic warehouse under an elevated section of its Tozai Line, said the Mainichi newspaper. “So-called plant factories like this are the focus of efforts by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries to expand safe provision of products like vegetables, high productivity, and job creation.”
“The airtight space is held to strict hygienic standards,” said Mainichi. Eleven varieties of plants are grown regularly, with roughly 400 plants growing on a given day. Plants are grown in trays that are stacked five high in metal frames. “LEDs shed light on the plants for 16 hours a day, and the liquid nutrients are cycled through the system 24/7. It takes roughly three to five weeks for a plant to reach maturity, and there is barely any loss.”
Mainichi says that after the food operation opened, Tokyo Metro overseer Remi Takahara, 33, spent six months lining up business customers for Tokyo Salad’s vegetables. “I never thought that I would be growing vegetables when I joined a railway company,” she told the newspaper.