The perfectly manicured fairways at Minohara Country Club wind through the forested hills of Gunma Prefecture about two hours from downtown Tokyo. In a few years, they’ll disappear under row-upon-row of solar panels.
In one of the world’s most densely populated and mountainous countries, developers are running out of sites big enough to host major solar projects. Golf courses, which multiplied in Japan during the boom years of the 1980s, are some of the last tracts of open land available.
“No one wants to do mega solar projects anymore. I really don’t think there’s any space,” said Daisuke Toya, representative director of Kamisato Kensetsu, a construction and real estate company that develops solar facilities and bought the 27-hole course in 2025. “The most we could do is buy up the golf course to use the land.”