An unlikely spot-prime land in Tokyo's central business district-is being turned into a testing ground for a new farming business.

An old bank vault, in the basement of a skyscraper in the heart of Otemachi, will soon be filled with a new kind of green as a ``vegetable factory.''

The underground plant factory, computer-controlled and pesticide-free, will even have its own ``sun'' in the form of light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The project is the brainchild of a new company that offers support services for job-seekers. The target groups are middle-aged victims of restructuring and unemployed youths.

The Kanto Employment Creation Organization was started by a group of 30 leading companies, including Sony Corp. and Canon Inc., together with Pasona Inc., a top staffing agency.

Its aim is to help skilled employees from major companies that invest in the organization to find jobs at medium-size and small companies.

Chosen for its easy accessibility, the downtown Tokyo site will produce ``safe,'' high-quality fruit and vegetables grown with cutting-edge technology.

According to sources, the project should be ready to begin early this month.

For starters, lettuce and tomatoes will be grown for the spring season. Depending on how well the crop turns out, and on the number of prospective farmers who sign up for training, there are tentative plans to expand the plant factory operations to other high-rises in central Tokyo, with a view to one day producing vegetables in bulk.

Vegetable factories are, in principle, sustainable greenhouses that grow vegetables indoors, in an artificially controlled environment that supplies the necessary light, humidity, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients. Factory crops are seasonless.

Theoretically, the system makes it possible for the factory to turn out produce using limited space, and to quickly adjust to market needs. The vegetables are grown in two ways: one that employs only artificial lighting and another that makes use of some natural sunlight.

The new plant factory in downtown Tokyo will use LEDs, with technical know-how provided by Masamoto Takatsuji, an engineering professor at Tokai University who specializes in ``plant factories.''

According to the Transfer Association of Green Factory, there are 15 plant factories nationwide that use artificial lighting exclusively. But most of them are out in the suburbs. The Otemachi experiment will be the first vegetable patch inside a skyscraper in central Tokyo.

The factory is located in the Otemachi Nomura Building in the downtown Otemachi district, where the streets are lined with the headquarters of major companies.

The building, 27 stories high and with five basement levels, used to be shared by Tokyo Seimei Hoken, a failed life insurance company, and Resona Bank (former Daiwa Bank). The life insurer once occupied the upper levels, while the bank, which is now practically state-owned, was in the lower levels.

These days, the building is leased out to various companies.

When Pasona moved its headquarters to the Otemachi Nomura Building, it rented floor space in the second basement level, the home of Resona's old vault.

The vast 1,000 square meters of space has already been parceled into patches awaiting tomatoes, leafy salad greens, lettuce and strawberries, as well as herbs and flowers. There are additional plans to add terraced rice paddies.

The temperature will be adjusted by computer, and the crops sprayed with a special solution and carbon dioxide. No pesticides will be used.

Essentially, the plants will be cultivated hydroponically, without much soil.

The first produce, expected to be harvested in spring, will go straight to the building's cafeteria.

If the vegetables catch on, the ``fields'' will be expanded to other buildings, and the factories will gear up for large-scale production to supply restaurants throughout the city.

A few young people, all former part-timers who were job-hopping from place to place, will be tending the first batch of crops.

To get some on-the-job training, the Kanto Employment Creation Organization first sent the youths off to the village of Ogata, in Akita Prefecture, where, since 2003, it has dispatched about 100 trainees in all, from young people to middle-aged and older corporate workers looking to start new careers.

The factory will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. so that corporate workers can drop in and get a green-thumb experience in high-tech farming.

Full immersion training will be available to those who show a serious interest in pursuing a career in agriculture.(IHT/Asahi: February 1,2005)