Where Are Organic School Lunches? Municipalities Serving Them and 168 Organic Villages, by Prefecture

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“Which municipalities serve organic school lunches?” “Does my prefecture or city do it in its elementary schools?” “I want to see a list of Organic Villages.” These are questions we often see about organic school lunches (yuki kyushoku).

The short answer: in fiscal 2024, 328 municipalities across Japan used organic ingredients in school lunches. However, the government has not published a list of the 328 municipality names. So Urayomi went through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) pages and documents and arranged 146 municipalities whose names and details can be identified by prefecture. We also include the full list of the 168 Organic Villages, municipalities that work on organic farming as a whole community.

In this article we cover:

• Which municipalities serve organic school lunches: the situation in each prefecture, and a list of the municipalities we can name
• All 168 Organic Villages (with start year, declaration and organic acreage)
• What is inside the “328”: is it every day, or once a year?
• Is the “organic” in “organic school lunch” the same as organic JAS?
• Examples where we can see “what” and “how much” is organic, such as Isumi City and Kameoka City
• Who pays for the extra cost of going organic, and how it relates to the school lunch fee relief starting April 2026
• Targets and results for organic school lunches in France, Sweden, Denmark, South Korea and Brazil
• Do organic school lunches change children’s bodies?
• Challenges, and the official contacts and programs to use when starting this in your own city

We check these against documents from MAFF and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), foreign government documents, and research papers (checked October 8, 2026). For how organic JAS works, see our article What Is Organic? (Standards and History). For research on organic diets and health, see Organic Food and Health. For organic markets and systems in Japan and the world, see Organic Around the World.

Conclusion

• 328 municipalities served organic school lunches in fiscal 2024 (about 19% of Japan’s 1,741), up 2.7 times from 123 in fiscal 2020. But no list of names has been published. MAFF publishes only a color-coded map by prefecture
• Nearly half of the 328 (46%) did it “5 times a year or fewer.” The count is “1 if organic food was used at least once a year, even at just one school in the municipality.” About 30% used organic food twice a month or more on average (21 or more times a year)
• The “organic” in “organic school lunch” is not always organic JAS. The national count includes organic farming without certification, and municipal programs include rice grown “with no pesticides during the growing period,” specially cultivated rice, and city or town certification schemes
• “How much” differs by orders of magnitude between municipalities. In Isumi City, Chiba, 100% of the rice in school lunches is organic; in Kameoka City, Kyoto, it is 52.4% of the rice at municipal elementary schools (fiscal 2024). Some municipalities do it only once a year
• There are Organic Villages in 168 municipalities across all 47 prefectures (as of August 31, 2026). Two municipalities in Okinawa joined in fiscal 2026, so every prefecture now has one. The national target is “200 by 2030,” 32 more to go
• In many cases, the municipality pays the extra cost of going organic (the price difference). National subsidies also cover “only the difference from regular ingredients.” The school lunch fee relief for public elementary schools from April 2026 uses a baseline of 5,200 yen a month, and the amount above that may be collected from parents
• Overseas, targets and results are far apart. France’s target is 20% organic in public catering, against 11.8% in 2024. Japan has no national target for the organic share of school lunches
• We found no study showing that organic school lunches reduced children’s illnesses. In a trial at elementary schools in Cyprus, urinary metabolites of pesticides (pyrethroids) were about 70% lower during the organic diet period, but the authors themselves write that this does not show a benefit to the body

Items featured in this article

Which municipalities serve organic school lunches?

In fiscal 2024, 328 municipalities used organic ingredients in school lunches, but no list of their names has been published. First, let’s look at the national figures and how they are counted.

Source: MAFF, “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture,” April 2026 edition, p. 13.

• How it is counted: municipalities that answered that they used organic food in school lunches “at least once a year.” If even one school in the municipality does it, it is counted
• The 328 in fiscal 2024 is about 19% of Japan’s 1,741 municipalities (including Tokyo’s 23 wards)
• We could not find the fiscal 2025 figure as of October 8, 2026

The biggest increases were in fiscal 2022 (+56) and fiscal 2023 (+85). This overlaps with the period when national support for Organic Villages began (from the fiscal 2021 supplementary budget) and efforts started moving in many places. However, no document examines the relationship between the two, so we cannot say that Village support increased organic school lunches.

December 8 is Organic Agriculture Day (yuki nogyo no hi) every year. Around that date, MAFF calls on municipalities nationwide to serve organic ingredients in school lunches, and it introduces the participating municipalities’ efforts on its page. As we will see later, the 328 includes municipalities that serve organic rice for just one day to coincide with this date.

The names of the “328 municipalities” are not published

MAFF’s “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture” does not include a list of the 328 municipality names. It has only a map color-coded by the number and share of municipalities in each prefecture.

There are three official sources where names can be found.

When Urayomi combined these three, 146 municipalities (in 44 prefectures) had names and details we could identify. The prefecture-by-prefecture list is in the next section.

But these 146 are not the same group as the “328.” The years and counting methods differ, and the Village case studies also include efforts such as specially cultivated rice. “Not on the list” does not mean “not doing it,” so please check your own municipality through its board of education or school lunch center announcements.

By prefecture: Nagano, Aichi, Ibaraki, Hyogo and others lead

The MAFF map does not label prefecture names, so Urayomi read the prefectures from their positions on the map and made these tables (we may have misread some).

Source: Urayomi’s reading of the map in MAFF, “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture,” April 2026 edition, p. 13.

Combining the two categories with each prefecture’s number of municipalities lets us calculate the minimum number of municipalities. For example, Nagano is in the “31% or more” category and has 77 municipalities, so there are at least 24. In the same way, Aichi has at least 17, Ibaraki at least 14, and Hyogo at least 13.

The four prefectures near the top in both number and share were Nagano, Aichi, Ibaraki and Hyogo. Okinawa, which had 0 in fiscal 2024, saw Ishigaki City and Nakagusuku Village join as Organic Villages in fiscal 2026.

List by prefecture: Organic Villages and municipalities with organic school lunches

For each region, we give two tables.

• Organic Villages: municipalities that MAFF supports for promoting organic farming across the whole community, from production to consumption such as school lunches (see what Organic Villages are for details). This is MAFF’s list as of August 31, 2026. “Start” is the fiscal year the effort began; “Declared” of “Yes” means the municipality is on the list of declarations as of June 29, 2026, and “—” means it is not. Acreage is as of fiscal 2023, and the share of farmland is the figure in the case studies
• Organic school lunches: the map category above (number and share), the municipalities we can name, and notable examples among them. The fiscal year is the year the effort took place

Villages include some with no school lunch effort yet, or ones that are only now expanding organic farming. Being an Organic Village and serving organic school lunches are separate things.

Hokkaido and Tohoku

There are 29 Villages; Yamagata has 7, and Hokkaido and Miyagi have 6 each. On the school lunch map, Hokkaido is in the “11 or more” category and Yamagata and Fukushima are in “6 to 10.” In Osato Town, Miyagi, organic meals went from 0 to 18 in fiscal 2025, the year it started its Village efforts.

Organic Villages (29)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Hokkaido and Tohoku)

Kanto

There are 29 Villages; Ibaraki and Chiba have 7 each. On the map, Ibaraki and Chiba are in the “11 or more” category, and Ibaraki is also in “31% or more” by share. Chiba has examples with large frequencies or shares, such as Isumi City, where 100% of the rice in school lunches is organic, and Kisarazu City, with 96 days a year.

Organic Villages (29)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Kanto)

In Tokyo, besides Setagaya and Minato, Taito Ward, an Organic Village, received organically farmed rice from its sister city Osaki in Miyagi and served it in all the ward’s junior high school lunches in December 2025. As for Shinagawa Ward, a distributor’s document submitted to a MAFF exchange meeting described a plan to use “organic JAS-certified and specially cultivated produce” at 46 ward elementary and junior high schools from October 2025 (we could not confirm this in an official ward document; the plan also includes specially cultivated produce).

In Saitama, besides Tokorozawa, Satte and Chichibu, there are the Villages of Ogawa (where organic acreage is 9.4% of farmland) and Saitama City.

Hokuriku and Koshin’etsu

There are 22 Villages; Nagano has 8. Nagano is also near the top on the school lunch map in both number and share, and calculation shows organic school lunches in at least 24 municipalities (fiscal 2024). Toyama and Ishikawa are also in the “31% or more” category by share.

Organic Villages (22)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Hokuriku and Koshin’etsu)

Tokai

There are 21 Villages; Shizuoka has 8. Aichi is near the top on the school lunch map in both number and share, with organic school lunches in at least 17 municipalities (fiscal 2024). There are also examples like Nabari City, Mie, which has set vegetable days using produce grown “without pesticides or chemical fertilizers during the growing period.”

Organic Villages (21)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Tokai)

Kinki

There are 23 Villages; Hyogo’s 10 is the most of any prefecture. Hyogo is also near the top on the school lunch map in both number and share, with at least 13 municipalities (fiscal 2024). Kameoka City, Kyoto, with “52.4% of the rice at municipal elementary schools,” has a high value among the examples where the share is known.

Organic Villages (23)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Kinki)

Chugoku and Shikoku

There are 17 Villages; Shimane has 5. About a quarter of Shimane’s municipalities (5 of 19) are Villages, and it is in the “31% or more” category for the share of organic school lunches. Yoshika Town serves 100% organic rice in school lunches, and Ohnan Town serves organic rice 12 times a year.

Organic Villages (17)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Chugoku and Shikoku)

Kyushu and Okinawa

There are 27 Villages; Miyazaki and Kagoshima have 6 each. Kagoshima is in the “11 or more” category on the school lunch map. Aya Town, Miyazaki, made an ordinance on organic school lunches in 2023. Okinawa had 0 organic school lunches in fiscal 2024, but two Villages were added in fiscal 2026.

Organic Villages (27)

Source: MAFF, list of fiscal 2026 Organic Village districts (as of August 31, 2026), case studies (September 2026), links to declaring municipalities (June 29, 2026). Acreage is as of fiscal 2023.

Municipalities with organic school lunches (Kyushu and Okinawa)

Source: MAFF, “Use of Organic Agricultural Products in School Lunches” (2024, 2025), “Organic Village Case Studies” (September 2026), and the map in “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture,” April 2026 edition (read by Urayomi). The map categories are for FY2024; the fiscal year for each notable example is in its parentheses.

What about private and national schools?

The national count is by municipality, but MAFF’s Organic Agriculture Day page lists some individual schools and early childhood centers.

Inside the “328”: 46% serve organic food 5 times a year or fewer

Nearly half of the “municipalities serving organic school lunches” do it only a few times a year. MAFF also asked the 328 municipalities about the number of times, items and origin.

Source: MAFF, “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture,” April 2026 edition, p. 14.

• The largest group is “5 times a year or fewer,” at 145 (46%). Municipalities that serve organic food for just one day to coincide with Organic Agriculture Day on December 8 are included here
• 21 or more times a year (roughly twice a month or more on average) is 104, about 30%
• Where the number of times differs by school, the municipality is counted by the school with the most. It does not mean every school in the municipality does it the same number of times

What is used? Where does it come from?

Source: same, p. 14.

Vegetables and rice are mostly what is used, and over 80% comes from local sources. This shows that organic school lunches are being advanced as “chisan-chisho” (local production for local consumption) efforts, using crops from local organic farmers in schools.

“Number of municipalities” and “share of children” are different things

All the numbers so far are numbers of municipalities. “About 19% of municipalities nationwide” does not mean “19% of children’s school lunches are organic.” We could not find any official national figure for the number of children eating organic ingredients or the organic share of all school lunches.

If you live in an “organic school lunch municipality,” is it organic every day?

Not necessarily. About 30% of the 328 serve organic food 21 or more times a year, and just 36 municipalities, about 10%, do so close to every day (101 or more times a year). Even within the same municipality, the number of times can differ by school, and the national count uses the number from “the school with the most.”

Many municipalities make only the rice organic. For example, even in a municipality where “all the rice is organic,” the vegetables and side dishes may mostly be regular ones. When you are thinking about a new home or your child’s school, the surest way is to check the items (rice, vegetables, etc.), the number of times, and the schools covered in announcements from the municipality’s board of education or school lunch center.

The “organic” in “organic school lunch” is not always organic JAS

Even among things called “organic school lunches,” the standards vary by municipality.

“Organic” with the organic JAS mark means only food that follows the standards set by law and has been inspected by a registered certification body (see What Is Organic? (Standards and History) for details). In school lunches, however, “organic” is used in a broader sense.

Source: MAFF, “Use of Organic Agricultural Products in School Lunches”; “Organic Village Case Studies” (September 2026); MEXT briefing session materials for applicants (April 2026).

The Act on Promotion of Organic Agriculture (Act on the Promotion of Organic Agriculture, 2006) defines organic farming as “agriculture carried out using agricultural production methods that reduce the environmental burden arising from agricultural production as much as possible, on the basis of not using chemically synthesized fertilizers and pesticides and not using genetic engineering technology.” The idea of the methods is close to organic JAS, but this law has no inspection or certification system. As a result, vegetables grown by “organic farming” in the sense of this law cannot be sold labeled “organic” unless they have organic JAS certification.

MAFF’s school lunch page says it posts efforts using both “organic produce with organic JAS certification” and “produce cultivated by organic farming as defined in the Act on Promotion of Organic Agriculture.” The count of 328 is also of “use of organic food,” and does not separate certified from uncertified.

Aya Town, Miyazaki, certifies produce in 4 grades of its own (gold, silver, bronze and none), and says it uses “gold” as much as possible in school lunches (MEXT materials).

The difference between specially cultivated produce and organic JAS is also explained in our Oisix article. When you hear “organic school lunch,” the surest way is to check which standard’s “organic” it is in the municipality’s documents.

How organic is it? Examples showing “what” and “how much,” such as Isumi City and Kameoka City

The share of organic food ranges by orders of magnitude, from “all the rice” to “once a year.” From MAFF and MEXT documents, we arranged examples where the number of times, amount or share is known, in descending order.

Source: MAFF, “Organic Village Case Studies” (September 2026); “Use of Organic Agricultural Products in School Lunches” (2025); MEXT briefing session materials for applicants (April 2026); MAFF, examples of food education.

The way of counting differs by municipality for number of times, amount and share. “96 times” and “52.4%” cannot be compared, and the meaning also changes depending on whether it is “rice only” or “vegetables too.” When reading the table, we recommend lining up the three points of item, way of counting and fiscal year.

Isumi City: all the rice in school lunches is organic

Isumi City, Chiba, is often introduced as a leading example of organic school lunches.

According to a city official (in a Japan Finance Corporation publication, January 2022), the organic rice harvest was 16 t in 2015 (40% of school lunches), 28 t in 2016 (70%) and 50 t in 2017, of which 42 t was used in school lunches.

• The year all-organic began and the number of schools differ by source. MAFF’s food education example says “from October 2017, all rice in municipal elementary and junior high school lunches is organic rice,” while the official’s interview in the Finance Corporation publication says “from 2018, all rice at 12 schools in the city, 9 elementary and 3 junior high schools.” MEXT’s 2026 document gives the current number of schools as “10 elementary, 3 junior high”
• In this article we use “October 2017” from the national document as the year, and present the 42 t as “what a city official said”

Who pays? The extra cost of organic, and the school lunch fee relief from April 2026

Organic ingredients are often more expensive than regular ones, and in many cases the municipality pays the difference. National support also covers the “difference.”

The difference: the national subsidy covers “only the difference from regular ingredients”

The Isumi City example: the city pays, and school lunch fees were not raised

• MAFF’s food education example states that the city bears the increased cost
• According to a city official (Finance Corporation publication, January 2022), the city and the agricultural cooperative buy organic JAS organic rice from producers at 23,000 yen per hyo (60 kg) and pesticide-free, chemical-fertilizer-free Koshihikari at 20,000 yen per hyo (about 1.5 times or more the conventional price), and the city covers this from its budget without raising school lunch fees
• Because organic vegetables have no wholesale price, Isumi City researched retail prices and distribution costs and set the price itself, and asked producers about next year’s delivery plans and included them in the budget (MEXT materials)

From April 2026: “drastic reduction of school lunch fee burden” at public elementary schools

The School Lunch Act has always specified that the municipality or other body that establishes the school bears the cost of school lunch facilities, equipment and staff, while other costs (mainly ingredient costs) are borne by parents (Article 11). The “school lunch fees” parents pay now are almost entirely ingredient costs.

From April 2026, a system began in which the national government and prefectures support school lunch fees at public elementary schools. This is what is commonly called “free school lunches.” MEXT calls it a “drastic reduction of the school lunch fee burden,” out of concern that the image of “completely free” could lead to higher burdens for municipalities wanting to raise quality and lower quality in municipalities wanting to hold down costs.

Source: MEXT, “Drastic Reduction of the School Lunch Fee Burden”; fiscal 2026 budget materials; agreement document (December 2025).

Stating only the facts of the system, the relationship with organic school lunches is as follows.

• If you use organic ingredients and the ingredient cost exceeds the baseline amount, the excess falls on parents or the municipality
• The national budget materials say that projects of various ministries can be flexibly used for “distinctive school lunches.” For the organic difference, the MAFF subsidy above (difference only) and the MEXT model project can be used
• The agreement document that set up the system gives as the reason for allowing amounts above the baseline to be collected from parents that “many municipalities are actively working on local production for local consumption and providing distinctive school lunches.” On the quality of school lunches, it says “rather than the national government setting a uniform policy, the efforts of each municipality are respected”

There is not yet any document showing whether this system will increase or decrease organic school lunches.

What are Organic Villages? 168 municipalities in all 47 prefectures

Organic Villages are municipalities that advance organic farming across the whole community, from “growing” to “eating” (school lunches, etc.). As of August 31, 2026, 168 municipalities in 47 prefectures are working on this.

What do Villages do?

A Village municipality forms a council with farmers, distribution and school lunch people and others, and uses the subsidy to make an “organic farming implementation plan.” Many plans include school lunch targets in addition to organic acreage and the number of farmers. For example, Kameoka City, Kyoto, has set a target of 75% organic rice in municipal elementary school lunches by fiscal 2027, and Matsukawa Town, Nagano, a target of 9.4 t provided to school lunches by fiscal 2027.

When the plan is settled, the municipality makes an “Organic Village declaration” and continues its efforts based on the plan. The 15 municipalities not on the declaration list (as of June 29, 2026) are the 13 that started in fiscal 2026, plus Taito Ward, Tokyo, and Takachiho Town, Miyazaki.

How many were added in which fiscal year?

Source: Urayomi’s count from the “R○ start” on each page of MAFF’s Organic Village case studies (September 2026) and the fiscal 2026 list of districts. Izumiotsu City, Osaka, and Taito Ward, Tokyo, are not in the case studies, so their years are Urayomi’s estimates.

• The target of “100 by 2025” was passed during fiscal 2024
• “200 by 2030” is 32 away. 23 were added in fiscal 2025, and 14 in fiscal 2026 through the end of August
• The 14 that joined in fiscal 2026 are Shimizu Town (Hokkaido), Mito City, Naka City and Ibaraki Town (Ibaraki), Satte City (Saitama), Shinano Town (Nagano), Murakami City (Niigata), Obama City (Fukui), Taki Town (Mie), Takashima City (Shiga), Konan City (Kochi), Isen Town (Kagoshima), and Nakagusuku Village and Ishigaki City (Okinawa). With Okinawa joining, all 47 prefectures are now represented
• “Mihama and Taketoyo” (Aichi), “Kamimine and Miyaki” (Saga), and “Takanabe and Kijo” (Miyazaki) are each one effort by two towns, but MAFF’s count by prefecture counts them as 2. The 168 uses this way of counting

In Organic Around the World we wrote “154 municipalities in 46 prefectures,” but that was the figure from an April 2026 document (as of December 2025).

Which prefectures have the most?

Urayomi’s calculation. The number of municipalities is the national 1,741, including Tokyo’s 23 wards.

Hyogo has the most, at 10, followed by Nagano and Shizuoka at 8.

Organic acreage is typically “around 1% of farmland”

Being a Village does not mean most of a town’s fields are organic. We tallied the 136 municipalities in the case studies where organic acreage is known (as of fiscal 2023).

Urayomi’s tally from MAFF, “Organic Village Case Studies” (September 2026). The case studies say they are “based on a survey conducted in fiscal 2024 (values for fiscal 2023).”

Organic farming’s share nationwide is around 0.9% (see Organic Around the World for details), and we can see that many Villages are at about the same level. The places with 0.0 ha are regions just starting organic farming.

School lunches are the Villages’ “standard menu item”

Of the 149 case studies (municipalities), 127 (85%) have “school lunches” marked among their efforts, and 138 (93%) mention school lunches in the text (Urayomi’s tally). However, in the case studies many have “0 times” or “0 t” for the baseline year, and many of the municipalities have only just started their school lunch efforts.

Taito Ward, Tokyo, and Izumiotsu City, Osaka, are Villages on the “consumption area” side, partnering with producing municipalities that grow the crops. Taito Ward received organically farmed rice from its sister city Osaki, Miyagi, and served it in all the ward’s junior high school lunches in December 2025.

Organic school lunches around the world: targets and results

Some countries and cities overseas set targets for the organic share of school lunches. But not many are on track to meet them. To line them up with Japan’s system, we separated targets from results.

Source: French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty press release (November 26, 2025); City of Copenhagen Economy Department response document (June 29, 2026); Ekomatcentrum “Marknadsrapport 2023”; Brazil Laws 11.947 and 15.226 and FNDE Resolution 06/2020; Légifrance (EGalim Act); Zuercher et al. 2025; Seoul and Korean press (newsis 2021, Kyunghyang Shinmun 2013).

• Even in countries with targets for the share, there are few figures for schools alone. The figures for France, Sweden and Copenhagen are for all public canteens, including hospitals and care facilities
• Some press reports put the organic share of France’s school sector at “17%,” but we could not confirm this in official documents
• We cannot say “organic school lunches are the norm around the world.” It is more accurate to say that some countries and cities set targets and measure them

France: a target set by law, but not reached

In its 2018 EGalim Act (the law of October 30, 2018; Article L230-5-1 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code), France required public collective catering such as schools and hospitals to use 50% “sustainable and high-quality” ingredients, of which 20% organic. The deadline was January 1, 2022.

According to a tally published by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty in November 2025, organic was 11.8% and sustainable and high-quality was 29.5% of 2024 purchases. It combines figures that canteens reported on a dedicated site, “ma cantine”; looking only at canteens that reported for three years in a row, organic was over 15% and sustainable and high-quality over 32%. Two years after the deadline, it is about half the target.

Northern Europe: Copenhagen near 90%, Sweden fell

The City of Copenhagen, Denmark, targets 90% or more organic in meals at city facilities. In the city’s June 2026 response document, the organic share rose from 85% in 2018 to 88% in 2024.

In Sweden, the previous government set a directional target of “60% organic in the public sector in 2030.” According to the private Ekomatcentrum’s tally, the public sector’s organic share fell about 1 point a year from 39% in 2019 to 37% in 2022. Differences between municipalities are large, and the highest, Örebro, was 70%.

South Korea and Brazil: not an “organic” obligation

Seoul’s “eco-friendly free school lunches,” as the name says, combine free school meals with eco-friendly ingredients. “Eco-friendly produce” includes pesticide-free produce as well as organic, and according to press reports, the recommended share was lowered in 2013 from 70% for elementary and 60% for junior high schools to “50% or more.” We could not confirm an official figure for the current share.

Brazil’s National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is required by law to buy at least 30% of the school meal budget it distributes directly from family farming, and raised this to at least 45% from January 2026. Organic and agroecological (agriculture that makes use of ecosystems) products are to be “given priority as much as possible” when buying ingredients under a 2020 resolution of the national fund that runs school meals (FNDE), but this is not an obligation for an organic share.

Kamimine Town, Saga, writes in its case study that it aims for “100% eco-friendly free school lunches.” The words are the same as the Korean system, but we could not confirm in the case studies what the town’s standard consists of.

Do organic school lunches change children’s bodies?

In trials where school meals were made organic, urinary pesticide metabolites decreased. But we found no study showing that illnesses decreased.

A trial at elementary schools in Cyprus (ORGANIKO)

This is a randomized trial in which organic meals were served school by school.

Source: Makris KC et al., PLoS One 2019 (PMID 31483785).

In additional analyses using the same 149 people’s data, the inflammation marker (CRP) was or was not significant depending on how it was calculated (2024); lead fell over time, and cadmium showed the same trend but was not significant (2023).

Other studies

A US trial that made home meals organic, and others, are introduced in Organic Food and Health.

Where the claims that “children’s health improved” come from

• We found no intervention study or cohort study showing that organic school lunches reduced children’s illnesses (atopic dermatitis, developmental conditions, etc.) (as far as searching PubMed for related papers went)
• The claims that “children became healthier with organic school lunches” came from remarks by mayors and officials, and from personal accounts. For example, a city official in Isumi has said that “leftover food decreased,” but no figures backing it have been published. We also could not find a primary source for the often-cited “leftovers fell by 10%”

What can be said is limited to this: an organic diet lowers some pesticide metabolites in urine. Whether that reduces children’s illnesses is still unknown.

Urinary metabolites are a marker of “how much has recently entered the body” and are not themselves a marker of disease. Japan’s pesticide residue standards for food are set on the basis of the ADI (acceptable daily intake), the amount considered not to affect health even if consumed every day for a lifetime, and what percentage of that amount people take in from ordinary meals is calculated in Organic Food and Health. There is still an unconfirmed step between “urinary pesticides fall” and “illnesses fall”, and that is the reading that fits current research.

The meaning of organic school lunches also need not be measured by health alone. In national and municipal documents, organic school lunches are described in connection with creating markets for local organic farmers, food education in which children learn about agriculture and the environment, and local production for local consumption. The case studies and the Organic Agriculture Day page also described many visiting classes by producers and exchange lunches eaten together with producers.

When you want to make your child’s meals organic at home too

Even if school lunches are organic only a few times a year, you can choose organic ingredients for meals at home. The Cyprus trial also made all meals organic, not just school lunches.

There are three labels to look for when choosing.

There are delivery and direct-from-farm services that bring organic JAS or “pesticides: not used during the growing period” vegetables to your home. Standards differ by company, so choose after checking the wording on the official pages. Where to start going organic and the costs are covered in Organic Food and Health, and a comparison of trial sets is in Our comparison of meal delivery services.

What are the challenges of organic school lunches?

The challenges listed in national documents center on three things: “quantity,” “price” and “standards.”

We could not find any official document dealing with whether there is an effect on allergy management.

How are different places working around this?

The case studies and MEXT materials also describe responses to the challenges.

• The municipality sets the price: Because organic vegetables have no wholesale price, Isumi City, Chiba, researched retail prices and distribution costs and set the price itself, and asked producers about next year’s delivery plans and included them in the budget
• Keep talking with those involved: Tokorozawa City, Saitama, kept discussing with those involved the shape, delivery method, allocation of quantities, timing of use and coordination of farm produce for school lunches, and through joint shipping held organic school lunches twice a year at all municipal elementary and junior high schools (FY2024)
• Reduce the burden on cooking sites: Ohnan Town, Shimane, served organic rice 12 times a year (FY2024) while devising ways to introduce it with as little burden as possible on the school lunch center
• Adjust supply and price first: Izunokuni City, Shizuoka (3 times a year), Owase City, Mie (3 times a year), Imabari City, Ehime (4 times a year), Iga City, Mie (once a year) and others say they went ahead after adjusting supply volume and price with those involved
• Decide standards and price at meetings: Saiki City, Oita, holds a school lunch meeting twice a year on standards and the prices of the main 4 items in order to supply organic produce for school lunches

Many examples start with rice or a few vegetable items. MAFF’s “Hints for Building Communities Around Organic Farming” also recommends trying it in school lunches even a few times first to grasp the challenges (for example around Organic Agriculture Day on December 8), creating a place for producers and school lunch people to talk directly, and starting with items where standards matter little even in organic farming (such as rice).

Starting organic school lunches in your own city

When you want to learn about organic school lunches in your own municipality, first check the municipality’s contact office and the national programs. Here we summarize only the facts about official contacts and programs.

MEXT’s model project is carried out by boards of education and others to test how to advance instruction about food while using local and organic produce in school lunches. In the fiscal 2025 research project of the same aim, the Toyama Prefectural Board of Education worked on organic rice school lunches at 4 prefectural special-needs schools, and a report was published in July 2026. The report says that because the harvest of organic produce in the prefecture is small and it is hard to supply it to school lunches reliably, it aimed to continue using it starting from small schools.

As a national event, there is the “Organic School Lunch Forum.” The 5th was held online on February 26, 2026, and the “3rd Organic School Lunch Best Practice Awards (Japan Organic Lunch Cup)” were also held (organized by the Organic School Lunch Forum Executive Committee, according to a press release).

There are also books that gather ideas on organic school lunches and examples from across Japan. Both are from the Rural Culture Association Japan (Nobunkyo): one covers examples from across Japan and frequently asked questions, and the other covers trends in France and elsewhere in the world and the challenges for Japan.

Items featured in this article (summary)

Here are the items featured in the article once more. The reasons and ingredients are written in each section.

Item	Where to buy
Coop Shizenha delivery: request materials	取り扱い青果の60％以上がオーガニック！生協の宅配コープ自然派 PR
Oisix trial set	おためしセットを見る（Oisix 公式） PR
Tabechoku (direct-from-farm online marketplace where you can buy from farmers)	食べチョクで生産者の野菜を見る PR
“Yuki Kyushoku Start Book: Ideas, Examples from Across Japan, and Q&A” (有機給食スタートブック 考え方・全国の事例・Q&A), edited by Rieko Tsuru and Yoshimitsu Taniguchi (Nobunkyo)	See on Rakuten (楽天ブックス) PR See on Amazon.co.jp PR
“How to Move Forward: Organic School Lunches, Global Trends and Japan’s Future” (どう進める？オーガニック給食 世界の動向と日本のこれから), by Kae Sekine (Nobunkyo Booklet 24)	See on Rakuten (楽天ブックス) PR See on Amazon.co.jp PR

Summary

Sources

Organic school lunches: numbers and examples

• MAFF, “Circumstances Surrounding Organic Agriculture,” April 2026 edition (pp. 13–14) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/index-37.pdf
• MAFF, “Use of Organic Agricultural Products in School Lunches,” 2024 https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/yuki1208/schoolefforts.html ; 2025 https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/yuki2025/school2025.html
• MAFF, “Organic Village Case Studies” (September 2026) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/organic_village-134.pdf
• MAFF, examples of food education (Isumi City, Chiba) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/syokuiku/jirei/attach/pdf/farm-9.pdf
• Japan Finance Corporation, “AFC Forum,” January 2022 issue, “Change Is in the People” (interview with the Isumi City Agriculture and Forestry Division) https://www.jfc.go.jp/n/findings/afc-month/pdf/afc_forum202201_6.pdf
• MEXT, “Model Creation Project for Enhancing Food Instruction by Promoting the Use of Local and Organic Produce in School Lunches,” briefing session materials for applicants (April 2026) https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20260427-mxt_kenshoku-000049537_10.pdf ; same, report (July 2026)
• MAFF, “Hints for Building Communities Around Organic Farming”; “Exchange Meeting on Organic Farming” (September 5, 2025), Materials 1–8

Organic Villages

• MAFF, “Organic Village” https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/organic_village.html
• Same, “Fiscal 2026 List of Organic Village Districts” (as of August 31) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/organic_village-131.pdf
• Same, “Links to Organic Village Declaring Municipalities” (June 29, 2026) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/organic_village-130.pdf
• Same, “Toward Creating Organic Villages” (as of May 2026) https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/kankyo/yuuki/attach/pdf/organic_village-126.pdf

School lunch fee relief

• MEXT, “Drastic Reduction of the School Lunch Fee Burden” https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/sports/syokuiku/kyu-lighten.html
• MEXT, fiscal 2026 budget materials; agreement document (December 19, 2025) https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20251219-mxt_soseisk01-000046461_12.pdf

Overseas

• Légifrance, “LOI n° 2018-938 du 30 octobre 2018” (EGalim Act), Article 24 (creating Article L230-5-1 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code) https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000037547946
• French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, press release (November 26, 2025) https://agriculture.gouv.fr/telecharger/152125
• City of Copenhagen Economy Department, response document (June 29, 2026)
• Ekomatcentrum, “Marknadsrapport 2023” https://kommunrankning.miljobarometern.se/content/emc-marknadsrapport-2023-fardigstalld-1-1.pdf
• Brazil Law 11.947 (2009) https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2007-2010/2009/lei/l11947.htm ; Law 15.226 (2025) https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2025/lei/L15226.htm
• Brazil FNDE Resolution CD/FNDE nº 06 (May 8, 2020), Article 23 (included in FAO’s legislation database FAOLEX) https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/bra214671.pdf
• newsis (February 10, 2021), Kyunghyang Shinmun (2013), Seoul Metropolitan Government mediahub (2011)
• Zuercher MD, et al. J Sch Health 2025 (PMID 39763015)

Research

• Makris KC, et al. PLoS One 2019, e0219420 (PMID 31483785; the ORGANIKO trial)
• Additional ORGANIKO analyses: PMID 38493848 (2024, CRP), PMID 36367505 (2023, lead and cadmium), PMID 34991267 (2022, metabolome)
• Nimako C, et al. Environ Int 2022 (PMID 35289289)
• He C, et al. 2012; He C, Mikkelsen BE. 2014 (surveys of organic school meals in Danish schools)