Fukui: Effort to Grow Bananas in Snow Bears Fruit; Japanese Farmer Does ‘Impossible’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:49 JST, February 28, 2026

FUKUI — A farmer in snowy Fukui City ships tropical bananas year-round.

Naoki Ejima, 63, was a pharmacist at a drugstore in the city but quit before reaching his retirement age to grow bananas. He began studying agriculture at a Fukui prefectural training facility in 2021.

An instructor at the facility told him that growing bananas in Fukui would be “impossible,” but Ejima refused to give up on his plans. He built greenhouses and started with seedlings. In the beginning, he struggled with a pest problem, but he stuck with his organic farming method.

Now, he expects an annual harvest of 20,000 bananas. He supplies his produce, which he named Echizen Bananas, to JA Fukuiken’s farm stands.

Ejima attributes his success to two factors: making the fruit resistant to cold temperatures by applying special treatments to the seedlings before planting, and using greenhouses to maintain a temperature of 15 C.

Echizen Bananas are popular as souvenirs despite their price — ¥600 for a bunch of three to six bananas — which is more expensive than imported bananas.

The biggest challenge to the project is paying the heating bill, prompting Ejima to explore growing methods that do not rely on kerosene.

“I want to make an appealing workplace while selling the products at a reasonable price so that they reach many people,” Ejima said.