As Japan moves to revive its countryside, pandemic chases many from cities

When the coronavirus outbreak caused rice and instant noodles to disappear from supermarket shelves in Tokyo this year, Kaoru Okada, 36, decided to leave the capital because he was worried about food security.

Okada settled in the central Japanese city of Saku, Nagano prefecture, about 160km northwest of Tokyo, maintaining his online retail and export business while growing vegetables in shared farms and threshing rice.