In Search of the Ideal Way of Life A Fulfilling Life on a Dairy Farm in the Land of the North
A lumni w Inter vie
YABUUCHI Naomi Asano Farm Dairy Farmer
| School of Agriculture – Graduate School of Agriculture Graduate |
Naomi Yabuuchi moved to Kushiro City and has been engaged in dairy farming, growing and selling vegetables, and forming a group called “Becotto” with other female farmers of the same generation to communicate the appeal of farming through photo exhibitions and social media. She talked about how she got to where she is today, the life she now lives, and memories from her school days.
I was interested in plants, so I joined the Laboratory of Crop Physiology of the Department of Agrobiology and Bioresources at the School of Agriculture, and I studied basic crop research, specifically the suppression of Japanese radish bolting, a phenomenon in which its stems elongate and flowers bloom, through my undergraduate and graduate (master’s) school years.
—What motivated you to apply to Hokkaido University?
—What did you focus on in your extracurricular activities?
When I went to my grandfather’s house, who was a farmer, I often played in the fields of rice paddies and sorts . There, I became interested in agriculture and began to think about going on to the School of Agriculture. I had a good image of Hokkaido, having visited there on a family trip, and I thought that Hokkaido University would be the right choice for studying agriculture. 22
Litterae Populi Spring 2022
I belonged to a club called Agees, where members experience farming through helping farmers, and we visited farmers on weekends and during extended vacations. At that time, I could sense a distance between agricultural science and actual agriculture practice. Some farmers accepted me with interest, wondering what agriculture students at Hokkaido University
