Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate Enters Agriculture with New JV, Launching High-Density Apple Production in Hokkaido
Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate established Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate Agriculture Co., Ltd. on December 12, 2025, in partnership with Nihon Agri. As part of its strategy to expand beyond traditional real estate operations, the company is entering the agricultural sector. Its first initiative will be the production of apples using a “high-density planting” method on roughly 5 hectares of idle land it owns in Muroran, Hokkaido, beginning in April 2026.
The cultivation site is located in Horomoe-cho, Muroran City, with a planting area of 4.75 hectares. The plan is to open approximately 0.77 hectares in spring 2026 and an additional 3.98 hectares in spring 2027. The high-density planting technique enables yields of roughly 6 tons per 1,000 m²—around three times that of conventional methods.
The company has extensive experience in community development around Nippon Steel’s steelworks sites. In 2024, it invested in and entered a business alliance with AGRIST Inc., a smart-agriculture startup, acquiring new expertise in the farming sector. Positioning agriculture as a land-based business similar to real estate, the company aims to build a production platform of 100 hectares over the next decade, while also considering future initiatives such as logistics infrastructure development, branding, and agri-tourism.
A precedent for real estate developers entering agriculture is Mitsui Fudosan, which in 2020 launched a processed-vegetable business in Ibaraki and Tochigi through a joint venture with World Farm. That model integrates production and processing to supply cut vegetables for commercial use, with plans to scale to 100 hectares by 2025. By partnering with Nihon Agri—which handles production through export—the new venture by Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate aims to build a fully integrated value chain from crop production to sales.
Key Facts
New Company Name: Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate Agriculture Co., Ltd.
Project Owners: Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate Co., Ltd.; Nihon Agri, Inc. (joint investment)
Location: 1-4-4 Nakajima-Honcho, Muroran, Hokkaido
Establishment Date: December 12, 2025
Cultivation Site: 77-2 Horomoe-cho, Muroran, Hokkaido
Cultivation Area: 4.75 ha
Cultivation Method: High-density apple planting
Opening Schedule: Spring 2026 (approx. 0.77 ha); Spring 2027 (approx. 3.98 ha)