Lemons in Japan
Japan's lemons have grown up around the mild, dry Seto Inland Sea.
Harvest
Japan harvested 9,668 tonnes of lemons in the 2023 crop. Hiroshima Prefecture accounted for 4,659 tonnes, or 48%, followed by Ehime and Wakayama. These figures show the scale of production, not eating quality.
Harvests swing widely from year to year. Three lines show the pattern for Japan, Hiroshima and Setoda.
The source marks 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 as years with a cold snap.
National figures: MAFF survey of specialty fruit production. Hiroshima and Setoda: JA Hiroshima fruit federation, as published in JA Hiroshima's booklet “Setoda Citrus, 2026”. No national figure is given for 2024.8
| tonnes | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 10,052 | 8,459 | 8,259 | 7,088 | 11,209 | 8,635 | 8,660 | 10,485 | 9,668 | — |
| Hiroshima | 5,618 | 5,220 | 4,790 | 3,569 | 6,284 | 4,861 | 4,401 | 5,782 | 4,659 | 6,038 |
| Setoda | 2,420 | 2,068 | 1,842 | 1,159 | 2,878 | 1,914 | 1,662 | 2,060 | 1,864 | 2,177 |
There is more than one account of where lemon growing began in Japan. Here we set out recorded events, place by place.
Japan (Shizuoka)
Lemon growing in Japan is said to have begun with seeds sown in Shizuoka in 1873, according to Hiroshima Prefecture. In Atami, a local story credits a foreign visitor to the hot springs who planted lemon seeds in a garden.
Accounts differHiroshima (Ōchō)
Ōchō village (now Yutaka-machi Ōchō, Kure, on Ōsakishimojima) bought navel orange saplings from Wakayama and found three lemon saplings among them. Planting these is said to be the start of lemon growing in Hiroshima; they are thought to have been of the Lisbon type.
Setoda
Lemons are said to have been grown in Setoda since the Meiji era, probably only for household use at first.
Accounts differHiroshima Prefecture
Spreading out from Ōchō, Hiroshima's lemon area reached 11 hectares.
Setoda
Growers set out to make Setoda a lemon district and began expanding plantings; the JA chronology marks this as the start of commercial lemon growing.
Setoda
The JA chronology records Setoda's 'Lemon Valley' (Tarumi district) as the first lemon-growing district to take shape in Japan.
Hiroshima Prefecture
With 18 of Japan's 25 hectares, Hiroshima became the country's leading lemon prefecture.
Setoda / Hiroshima
JA materials put Setoda's output at about 900 tonnes, the largest in Japan. Hiroshima Prefecture records 70 hectares (of 144 nationally) and more than 600 tonnes for the prefecture, half the national total.
Japan
Lemon imports were liberalised in May 1964, dealing a severe blow to domestic growers.
Hiroshima Prefecture
Severe cold waves in 1976 and 1981 caused further damage, and lemon imports passed 100,000 tonnes in 1977.
Setoda
As domestic lemons were re-evaluated, the local agricultural cooperative led an island-wide campaign to replant lemons, asking each household to plant one are (100 m²).
Accounts differSetoda
An optical-sensor grading line was installed.
Setoda
Setoda's growers received an Excellence Award at the 8th national contest for environmentally friendly farming.
Setoda
Growers obtained certification under Hiroshima Prefecture's special cultivation scheme, and the Setoda Eco Lemon® Group was formed.
Setoda
The optical-sensor grading line was renewed.
Setoda
'Heart Lemon' was registered as a trademark.
Setoda
The Setoda Eco Lemon® Group won the Grand Prize (group division) of the 52nd Japan Agriculture Awards, announced on 31 January 2023 and presented on 4 March 2023.
Setoda
'Star Lemon' and 'Setoda Eco Lemon' were registered as trademarks, and in November the Setoda Eco Lemon® Group received the Emperor's Cup in the horticulture category of the 62nd Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Festival.
From the islands of the Seto Inland Sea to the Kii Peninsula, Kyushu and the southern islands.
Hiroshima grows roughly half of Japan's lemons, more than any other prefecture. Prefectural records trace its lemon growing to three trial trees planted in 1898 in Ōchō, on the island of Ōsakishimojima. In Setoda, growers produce Setoda Eco Lemon® under the prefecture's reduced-input cultivation scheme, and combine open-field, stored and greenhouse fruit to keep lemons available through the year.
Ehime ranks second after Hiroshima, with about a fifth of the national harvest. The official survey lists Imabari, Matsuyama and Uwajima as its main growing areas. Iwagijima in Kamijima Town is affectionately known as the 'Island of Green Lemons' (aoi lemon no shima), after the fruit it ships while still green.
2023 crop
Wakayama is third, with about a tenth of the national harvest; the survey names Kinokawa, Yuasa and Kainan as its main lemon areas. According to Hiroshima Prefecture, the first lemon trees planted in Ōchō in 1898 arrived mixed in with navel orange saplings bought from Wakayama.
2023 crop
Miyazaki ranks fourth. The survey lists Nichinan, Miyazaki City and Kijo as its main growing areas, and shows 95.3 tonnes of its shipments going to processing.
2023 crop
In the original survey Kumamoto is fifth by harvest at 338.3 tonnes, ahead of Mie. Its main areas are Uki, Ashikita and Amakusa.
2023 crop
Mie harvests 305.1 tonnes (sixth nationally), centred on the town of Mihama on the Kumano coast. Mie Prefecture's produce library features the Meyer lemon, with a harvest season of October to March.
2023 crop
Saga harvests 203.8 tonnes; main areas are Kashima, Tara and Karatsu.
2023 crop
Kagawa harvests 196.4 tonnes; main areas are Mitoyo, Kan'onji and Takamatsu.
2023 crop
Kochi harvests 133.5 tonnes; main areas are Kuroshio, Konan and Shimanto.
2023 crop
Shizuoka's harvest is modest at 80.1 tonnes, but it matters to the history: Hiroshima Prefecture notes that lemon growing in Japan is said to have begun with seeds sown in Shizuoka in 1873, and Atami tells a local story of a foreign visitor to its hot springs planting lemon seeds in the early Meiji years.
2023 crop
Chiba harvests 55.5 tonnes in the south of the Boso Peninsula (Minamiboso, Kamogawa, Tateyama).
2023 crop
Tokyo's island lemons are small in volume (35.4 tonnes) but distinctive. The variety, Kikuchi lemon, was brought from Tinian to Hachijō Island in 1940 by Yuji Kikuchi and reached Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands in 1973. Ogasawara picks it green and calls it shima lemon ('island lemon'); Hachijō ripens it on the tree and sells it as Hachijō Fruit Lemon.
Hiroshima Prefecture names Lisbon and Villafranca as Japan's representative lemon varieties; the first trees planted in Ōchō in 1898 are thought to have been of the Lisbon type.
Alongside Lisbon, one of the two representative varieties grown in Japan.
A Lisbon strain used by Hiroshima's research centre as a reference; in its trials the fruit averaged 129 g with 9.5 seeds and 6.37% citric acid.
Another reference strain in Hiroshima's trials and the seed parent of Yellow Bell; fruit averaged 113 g with 18.1 seeds and 6.54% citric acid.
Bred by Hiroshima Prefecture and registered in March 2012: very few seeds, thin peel and a milder acidity.
Bred by NARO from a lemon × Hyūganatsu cross; resistant to citrus canker, large (about 200 g) and mild in acidity. Official statistics count it separately from lemons.
Featured by Mie Prefecture among its local produce, with a harvest season of October to March.
The variety of the Ogasawara and Hachijō islands; considered closest to the Meyer lemon, with large fruit (150–200 g) and a mellow taste.
Reported as the variety grown on Iwagijima, Ehime.
One town grows 40% of Hiroshima's lemons: Setoda, in Onomichi. Let us cross to Ikuchijima and Kōnejima.
Discover SetodaSETODA LEMON
Cooking, drinks, pastry or processing: tell us what you have in mind and when, and we will connect you with the growers' cooperative.
Hiroyoshi Numazaki
J-Catalyst / Higashi Nippon Broadcasting (khb)
Weekdays 10:00–17:00, Japan Standard Time
