Solitary Japanese farmer devoted to Chinese agriculture

Kawasaki carries a basket of tomatoes. [Photo from Sina Weibo]

A 70-year-old Japanese man has buried his head in a small Henan province county for three years to work on and promote compost technology, reported thepaper.cn on Tuesday.

Most of the time, Kawasaki Hirohito can't understand others and people around don't understand him.

He wants to help with agriculture in China.

On the Xiaoliugu farm where Kawasaki works, some staff prepared to pack green tomatoes into boxes and mail them to clients nationwide ahead of June’s Dragon Boat Festival.

Kawasaki, in his navy blue overalls, was not impressed and made them stop what they were doing.

"Yes, the tomatoes will turn red but the sweetness won't increase. We can't sell those now," Kawasaki told them.

On that day, they didn't ship any tomatoes.

The tomatoes ripen during summer, but Kawasaki won't allow them to be picked a moment earlier. The farm owner Li Wei was confused--she had to put off the shipping day for orders as new ones were piling up.

Kawasaki said Chinese knew what was good for them but they wouldn't do it, even they were rich.

He noticed Chinese farmers used too much chemical fertilizers and their fermented manure was not completely fermented.

He believed the chemical fertilizers were to land like analeptic was to athletes since, they have quick effect but cause soil hardening.

On the contrary, compost is fermented feces with the help of oxygen, which can be made in two months and soften the hardened soil.

According to Li Ji, a professor at the China Agricultural University, 76 percent of all fertilizers in Japan are organic fertilizers, while only 20 percent are in China.

Kawasaki had been through a lot since he tried his best to promote compost technology in China.

When the 70-year-old was upset, he refused to eat, shouted and shed tears. The only thing he distracted himself from loneliness with was writing a long post on Sina Weibo, one of the most popular social platforms in China – similar to Twitter – telling his 40,000 followers that "I'm mad everyday, but work hard".