Smartphones skyrocketed in popularity around 2010, bringing convenience and new norms to people’s lives. New services and businesses were born, and society in Japan began to see significant change.
Japanese agriculture, however, remained unchanged. The farming population continued to age, while the lack of successors and workers was still a pressing issue. In the 2010s, approximately 60% of Japan’s farmers were over the age of 65,^*1 and Japanese agriculture found itself in dire straits. Further, to add to the list of social problems, Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate was at around 40%,^*2 low even among developed countries. To counter these concerns, young workers who could sustain Japanese agriculture, as well as help from other industries, were paramount. Agriculture therefore had to shake off its unprofitable reputation, and transform into an appealing, profitable industry.

Kubota thus began efforts to help this transformation and contribute to the recovery of one of Japan’s valuable national industries. One such endeavor was the use of IT and robotics to realize the concept of smart agriculture.^*3 The company also provided management support to build sustainable businesses, helped to open and expand sales channels essential to ensuring a profitable industry, and built platforms through which it could demonstrate its ideas and technologies. Agriculture is by nature a noble industry that exists in harmony with the environment and upholds human life. Kubota’s social mission is to protect this agriculture for future generations. It was at this time that Kubota began to open up new possibilities for agriculture as a total solution provider. The company had developed alongside the nation’s farmers, and so it sought to bring together its long-accumulated technologies and vast experience to build an appealing, profitable industry for them, from production through to sale.