Japan's Mother Farm: How to build a rural tourism business with a 'cute' theme and achieve an annual income of 200 million yuan
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2025-01-11
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Mother Farm, located in Kano-yama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, covers an area of 250 hectares. It was founded in 1962 by Mr. Maeda Hisayoshi, the founder of "Sankei Shimbun Daily" and "Tokyo Tower," to commemorate his mother and develop Japan's livestock industry. Less than a 2-hour drive from central Tokyo, it attracts 850,000 visitors annually, with an annual income of 210 to 260 million RMB. As an established farm, why has Mother Farm remained so successful?
Richly Developed Animal Experience Projects
Like many farms, Mother Farm's main revenue streams are from tickets, catering, picking, and shopping. It offers eight core experiences: animal interaction, landscape flower viewing, fruit and vegetable picking, handicraft experiences, amusement park, dining, shopping, and camping. The most distinctive feature is the animal experiences on the farm.
(1) Range of Farm Animals
Mother Farm has both common animals such as ducks, sheep, pigs, goats, rabbits, and horses, as well as rare animals seldom seen in Japan, such as guinea pigs, turtles, alpacas, llamas, ostriches, and capybaras.
(2) Farm Animal Programs
The farm animal performances are quite unique. In addition to the usual theatrical animal shows, there are various animal parades and traditional events such as sheep shearing shows and pig races. The pig races add a "horse racing" element, where you can bet on a pig for 500 yen, and the ticket stub gets you a numbered pig doll.
▲ Sheep Parade
▲ Duck Parade
▲ Sheep Shearing Show
▲ Pig Race
(3) Animal Interaction Experiences
At the farm, you can not only watch the animals but also interact with them closely, such as petting guinea pigs and rabbits, milking cows, and feeding and riding horses.
Operationally, these animals continuously increase the farm's biodiversity and add rich activity content, providing unique research and learning experiences.
Four Seasonal Scenery
Cultivating Unique Seasonal Scenery
The farm provides ample space for the animals to roam. In addition, long-term cultivation of landscape effects is a key focus of the farm.
Located on a mountain, the farm utilizes its vast space to cultivate a large number of flowers, resulting in different colored "mountain flower" scenery in different seasons, such as plum blossom fields in pink and white (February-March), blue butterfly pea flower fields (April-May), colorful hydrangea fields (June-July), pink petunia fields (June-September), and various other colored Rosaceae plants.
The unique scenery makes tourists frequent visitors to the farm. To ensure tourists don't miss these sights, the official website regularly updates the actual opening status and blooming times of the flower fields every week.
In addition to flower viewing, there are also fruit and vegetable picking experiences, such as picking cherry tomatoes, kiwifruit, and digging up sweet potatoes.
Rich Experiences Enable Repeat Visits
Characteristic Operations Based on Primary and Secondary Industries
Mother Farm has evolved from a traditional farm and family farm to a multifunctional farm integrating primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, combining family fun, research and learning, and leisure activities.
(1) Unique Cuisine
Traditional livestock farms feature primary dairy products (cow and sheep milk) and primary meat products (beef and mutton). Mother Farm, building on its existing resources, has established ham and sausage factories, jam factories, chocolate workshops, and gourmet kitchens. In addition to deep processing of primary dairy products (cow and sheep milk) and primary meat products (beef and mutton), it has gradually developed characteristic farm cuisine, which can be enjoyed on the farm.
The farm has four restaurants and seven cafes, mostly built on the mountain, creating a unique dining atmosphere with scenic views. Here, you can savor the farm's homemade food, ice cream, and other local specialties, as well as food shaped like cute animals.
(2) Diverse Accommodation
The rich natural scenery also provides tourists with unique and diverse camping accommodations, such as: farm terrace tent area, forest terrace tent area, hammock terrace tent area, panoramic terrace tent area, sports terrace tent area, family suite terrace tent area, New Zealand cottage (with small terrace), sky terrace tent area, etc. For tourists who prefer hotels or guesthouses, the farm has strategic partnerships with nearby guesthouses and hotels to ensure that different tourist needs are met.
(3) Customized Sales
As a tourist destination, in addition to food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, and entertainment, of course, there's shopping.
The farm has two merchandise sales points, one at the farm entrance and one at the top of the mountain. Unlike conventional merchandise sales, Mother Farm offers customized products. For example, you can make all-natural jams, butter, or cheese from the fruits you pick at the food workshop; or you can work with your parents to create various cute accessories using the farm's own wool, leather, leaves, and flowers. In addition to custom-made items, you can also buy processed products from Mother Farm and merchandise featuring the farm animals.
Special Research on Investment in the Tourism Industry
To gain a deeper understanding of the investment and development of the tourism industry, the China Tourism Academy, in conjunction with the China Amusement Machine and Amusement Park Association and other organizations, is conducting a special research activity on investment in the tourism industry. We sincerely invite all member units and tourism enterprises to participate in the research.
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