2022 TOP 100 GOOD
PRACTICE STORY
Title of the Story: Regional development based on locally grown olives
Destination Name: Shodoshima Town, Kagawa PrefectureCountry: Japan
Submitter name: Kotomi Shiota
Email address: olive0641@town.shodoshima.lg.jp
Position: Senior Officer of Industry and Tourism Division, Shodoshima Town OfficeSubmission category:☐Governance, Reset & Recovery☐

Nature & Scenery☐

Environment & Climate☐

Culture & Tradition☒Thriving Communities☐Business & Marketing

DESCRIBE YOUR GOOD PRACTICE STORY
Address each aspect of your good practice story in the different sections beingspecific including relevant quantitative and qualitative information.

Issues faced
Shodoshima is currently known as “Olive island” of Japan, in the easter part of Seto Inland sea,
characterised by a warm, low-rainfall climate, similar to that of the Mediterranean coast, where olive
cultivation flourishes. About 115 years ago, when national policy began to call for domestic selfsufficiency in olive oil, plot cultivation took place all over Japan and Shodoshima was the only place inJapan where olives succeeded in growing and bearing fruit. This helped the island reach its current statusof ”Olive Island”. In addition, after the WWII, olives, as a “symbol of peace “ became a characteristic
local resource of “Shodoshima Tourism“ and an indispensable part of the local community ofShodoshima. Through the constant efforts and trial and error of our ancestors, Shodoshima as “OliveIsland” became popular domestically. However, the huge influx of cheap foreign olive products following
import liberalisation that began around 1959 led to a sharp decline in demand for the olives produced
domestically. Furthermore, due to the rapid decline of the population as well as the birth rate, both theolive cultivation area and the yield of olives on Shodoshima drastically dropped from 106 hectares / 405
tons in 1964 down to 35 hectares / 16 tons in 1989. This was a huge damage for the island both
economically and environmentally.

Methods, steps and tools applied
In spite of its fame as “Olive Island“, tourists visiting Shodoshima were disappointed to see fewer olive
trees on the island due to the decline in its cultivation mentioned in the previous section. As thebirthplace of olive cultivation in Japan, there was growing momentum to protect the olive as a localresource. One of the first efforts was developing a park in the former national olive cultivation test area,together with a surrounding degraded farmland. This was to aim to protect and nurture olives and torevitalise the local area. This led to the establishment of the "Olive World Concept", launched mainly by
the public administration. The "Shodoshima Olive Park" was developed in 1990 to coincide with theredevelopment of the prefectural olive test plots, and in addition to serving as a farm whereapproximately 2,000 olives are cultivated, it is a comprehensive olive grove facility that includes amemorial hall where visitors can learn about the history of olives in Shodoshima and also lodging andbathing facilities. Today, it is a major tourist spot, attracting more than 380,000 visitors a year, thanks
to the olive cultivation. The spectacular Mediterranean-inspired scenery of the olive groves spread out
below and overlooking the Seto Inland Sea gives the impression of an "Olive Island". The town of
Shodoshima has also made efforts to expand the area under cultivation by subsidising the cost of oliveseedlings as part of the town's policy, and by developing abandoned land into olive groves. As a result,both the cultivated area and the volume of olives harvested have gradually recovered. The entire islandof Shodoshima set a new record for cultivation area in 2010 and for harvest quantity in 2017.
(2010: cultivated area 110ha, harvest 115t / 2017: cultivated area 143ha, harvest 425t).

Key success factors
The recovery in cultivation area and harvest quantity was triggered in 2003, when the former Uchinomi
town (*1) was the first of the government's "Special Zones for Structural Reform" measures to beapproved as a "Special Olive Promotion Zone" (*2). Thanks to that, it is now possible for corporations
other than agricultural production companies to enter agricultural business, which had previously beendifficult due to legal restrictions. This has encouraged the local soy sauce and tsukudani (food boiled insoy sauce) industry, which had been stagnant due to the shift away from Japanese food, to engage inolive cultivation. As a result, a virtuous circle has been created: not only has the devastated farmland
been converted into olive-growing land and the area under cultivation and yield increased, but also thenew commercialisation and sale of olives has provided additional economic prosperity to support thelocal business and has led to the sustainability of the local industry.
(*1) The former Ikeda Town and the former Uchinomi Town merged and are now Shodoshima Town.
(*2) This system was established in 2002 with the aim of promoting structural reform and revitalisingregions by reforming government regulations that no longer fit the actual situation in limited areas.

Lessons learned
The biggest challenge was to maintain its top status as Olive Island, in both its quality and quantity.
While 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of olive planting, the town of Shodoshima saw a plateau in
number of visitors, devastated farmland not being in use, and other issues arose. In the meantime, as aresult of sharing know-how on regional development through olives, other regions, such as Kyushu andChugoku area, had begun to enter the market. As Shodoshima has been positioned as the only successful
olive-growing region in Japan, and in order to maintain the position and improve even further, it neededto excel in its quality and added value to differentiate from other regions. This is around the time when
Shodoshima Town was the only and first municipality in Japan to establish an “Olive Division“ as adepartment specialising in regional development through olives. The following year, the town launched
the “Olive Top One Project“ as a major initiative, and the public and private sectors joined forces toundertake various projects with four pillars: “research and development“, “human resources
development“, “high added value“ and “image strategy“, in order to ensure that Shodoshima continuesto be the leader in Japan's olive industry. Of particular importance in this project is promoting andeducating the value and attractiveness of olives to the local community. The government made sure tocreat a living environment where olives are a natural part of life: for example by using extra virgin olive
oil in school lunches at elementary and junior high schools and hospitals in the town, and also by giving
olive tree saplings as a gift at life milestones such as childbirth, marriage and moving to the island. Thiswas conducted with the hope that the recipients will spend their lives on Shodoshima with olives. Thisis a way of fostering pride in Shodoshima olives, ensuring the next generation of olive industry leaders
and improving the image of the island as a whole.

Results, achievements and recognitions
The difference between foreign and other domestic olives and Shodoshima olives is their “quality“ and“functionality“, which proves its quality and subsequently quantitative results. In Shodoshima, eacholive is harvested by hand, one by one, and then sorted by human eyes. The town also has facilities forcollecting oil immediately after harvesting, which enables the production of fresh, high-quality oil. Inaddition, there is the only public research institute for olives in the country, the Agricultural Experiment
Station called Shozu Olive Research Institute, which carries out sensory evaluations of olive oil according
to international standards. According to IOC (*3) standards for olive oil, extra virgin olive oil is defined
as having an acidity of 0.8% or less, but for example, those from the Shodoshima Olive Park boasts anoverwhelmingly high quality of 0.08%. The extra virgin olive oil produced in Shodoshima, which is theresult of these producers' careful handiwork and thorough quality control, was awarded 3 prizes from 2
local companies in the 2020 Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fair. And 6 companies in
Shodoshima are included in the FLOS OLEI World Olive Guidebook 2021, which only lists oils that havereceived high scores at Italian competitions, and 2 of these companies have received the highest scoresfor Japanese products and are also highly regarded in international competitions.
Shodoshima has also long paid attention to the functional properties of olives, and even the residue,juice, flowers, leaves and prunings, which are usually thrown away after oil extraction, are processed
and utilised. In particular, “Olive Beef“, from black Japanese cattle raised in Kagawa prefecture on theolive pulp that is left over and “Olive Yellowtail “, a farmed yellowtail fed on crushed olive leaves. These
are well-known brand products in Kagawa Prefecture nowadays. A circular agricultural trend is also
being formed, where olives are grown on “olive compost“ made by crushing pruned branches and leaves
and fermenting them for a year. In recent years, as people are more health-conscious, olive oil andrelated products have become part of our diet in Japan.
The centenary of olive growing in Shodoshima can present the history of olives in Japan. In order topreserve the “beautiful landscape with olives“ for the next 100 years, we will continue to lead otherolive culture and industry as the birthplace of olive cultivation in Japan, and further aim to be a leaderof a sustainable region with olives both economically, socially and environmentally.
(*3) The International Olive Council is the world's only international intergovernmental organisation in
the field of olive oil and table olives. (Convention and International Commodity Agreement).

Additional references
・(1) Changes in Shodoshima olive cultivation (PDF)
・(2) About olives in Shodoshima (inspection info.) (PDF)
・(3) Shodoshima Olive Top One Project (Phase IV Plan) (PDF)
・(4) Shodoshima Town HP, About Olives
https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/gyousei/kakuka/kikakuzaisei/4/1637.html
・(5) Shodoshima and Uchinomi Town Olive Promotion Special Zone
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/nousin/tikei/houkiti/h_jirei/pdf/7_14.pdf・(6) OLIVE JAPAN International Olive contest https://olivejapan.com/
・(7) FLOS OLEI World Olive Guidebook https://www.flosolei.com/
・(8) Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fair
https://fairplex.com/competitions/olive-oil-competition
・(9) Oliva Grace (olive compost made by Shodoshima Olive Park)https://olive-pk.jp/blog/archives/1189