He Moved Back to Japan for a New Career: His Grandparents’ Wagyu Farm

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Masashi Nakamura, 29, who’s working Nakamura Farm, a small Wagyu farm in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. His phrases have been edited for size and readability.

I used to be working at a meat processing facility in Tasmania when my interest in Wagyu started. It was 2024, and I had simply moved from Vancouver after my plans to review internet growth fell via.

Someday, I observed the phrase “Wagyu” written on the hanging beef carcasses. Having grown up in Japan, I might all the time taken this sort of beef without any consideration. However seeing how extremely folks abroad regarded it modified my perspective. I started to grasp that Wagyu was extra than simply beef — it had deep roots in Japan and was valued around the globe.

I used to be 27 and dwelling in a rural space surrounded by cattle. The expertise made me notice how strongly I used to be drawn to the quiet life-style. I started reflecting on my future.

Final 12 months, I made a decision to pursue a profession within the Wagyu trade. I moved back to Japan to assist restore my grandfather’s ageing Wagyu farm in Satsuma, a city in Kagoshima Prefecture.

From IT to the countryside

I grew up in a city close to Kansai Worldwide Airport in Osaka Prefecture. In contrast to the picture of Osaka as a crowded city, my hometown has many fields and rice paddies.

I graduated from a Japanese college with a level in English language and communication, hoping English would assist me work internationally and expertise completely different cultures.

By commencement, although, I spotted English alone wasn’t sufficient. I bought a job as an IT engineer in Osaka, monitoring and sustaining servers. After two years, I made a decision I needed to construct digital merchandise and programs myself.

I moved to Vancouver to review internet growth, however after a 12 months, I spotted it wasn’t the appropriate path and dropped out. Subsequent, I headed to Australia on a working vacation visa.

Across the identical time, I came upon that my grandfather was planning to shut the Wagyu farm after promoting all of his cattle. My grandparents have been getting older and will not run it.

I used to go to the farm as a child. Through the summer time, I might experience behind my grandfather’s truck as he drove across the rice fields. Once I instructed him I needed to take over the farm, he was shocked. He frightened I would not have the ability to make a dwelling from farming, however he supported my resolution.

For years, I might been so centered on life abroad that I continually seemed exterior Japan for my future. Now, I hope my IT and language abilities will give me an edge in farming and assist me do issues in a different way whereas nonetheless respecting custom.

Embracing a easy life

I moved again to Japan in late 2025 and took over the farm’s each day operations as my grandfather started stepping again. Today, I get up at 6 within the morning to feed the cattle and clear the farm.

I am nonetheless rebuilding the enterprise, and it would not generate sufficient earnings to rent staff. My grandmother continues to look after the cattle, and I’ve used financial savings from my IT profession and abroad jobs to pay for renovations, upkeep, feed, and the farm license.

To assist myself, I work part-time at a man-made insemination middle, the place I assist with calf administration and public relations. I additionally work at a neighboring Wagyu farm, which supplies me an opportunity to be taught extra about cattle care.

I additionally earn earnings on-line via Purchase Me a Espresso donations and Instagram subscriptions, the place I share behind-the-scenes movies of Wagyu farming. I additionally handle social media for the Wagyu farm the place I work part-time.

I earn lower than half of what I made after I was beginning out as an IT engineer. However I am happier living in the countryside. I really feel like I’ve a better sense of function.

Rebuilding with a function

Working within the IT trade got here with psychological stress, however in farming, it is bodily and financial stress and fixed stress. While you’re chargeable for dwelling animals, there isn’t any such factor as a time without work.

Regardless of that, restoring my grandfather’s farm motivates me. It has a historical past of over 60 years and is one thing he has devoted his life to. This expertise is not one thing I might acquire by working in entrance of a display screen.

My aim is not to observe the standard mannequin of accelerating the herd measurement to develop income. I’ve seen how that may flip right into a cycle of fixed survival, from balancing cattle with rice farming to pushing folks to their limits.

As a substitute, I wish to construct a sustainable enterprise by diversifying my earnings streams. Proper now, I am making a administration utility to assist with the farm and hoping to develop a farmstay. My focus is not on elevating extra money, however making a construction that may final and develop over time.

For now, my focus is on holding the farm alive, at the least whereas my grandfather is alive