Objective Since the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations launched the “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems” (GIAHS) project in 2002, the GIAHS project has played an effective role in protecting and spreading traditional agricultural production methods, agricultural culture and regional agricultural landscapes around the world. The traditional farming systems in East Asia are composite, highly efficient and ecologically sustainable nurturing a large number of agricultural heritages with rich inheritance value. In East Asia, Japan participated in the GIAHS project later than China with a smaller number of agricultural heritages included in the project. This research hopes to, by studying the fine utilization of natural ecological resources by Japanese agricultural heritage and the experiences of multi-organization coordinated development in regional economic production, explore the wisdom of adaptability and toughness evolution of Chinese traditional agricultural production methods, and provide some reference for clarifying the rural landscape characteristics, constructing the heritage conservation and utilization mechanisms and realizing the value transformation of ecological products in China.

Methods There are 15 GIAHS and 24 NIAHS in Japan, involving a total of 32 heritage sites. In terms of distribution, they are widely distributed in all parts of Japan except Hokkaido and Okinawa, covering landform types such as plain, mountain, hill, river, and coast, including agricultural, forestry, fishery, and animal husbandry production landscapes such as rice field, orchard, plantation, as well as traditional fishery and animal husbandry sites. From the perspective of the overall composite system, this research analyzes the landscape characteristics of agricultural heritage in Japan and summarizes the experiences and conservation in the conservation and utilization of such heritage. Through the comprehensive collection of official data and government open source data of 32 heritage sites, 21 composite system evaluation indicators are selected, including natural ecology, economic production, social culture, etc. Based on ArcGIS 10.6 platform and SPSS analysis tools, the qualitative and quantitative indicators composed of text and digital data are quantified. While qualitative indicators are quantified by classified assignment to obtain discrete data. Through two-step cluster analysis, the 32 agricultural heritages in the research area are divided into several types, with each type sharing unified characteristics. According to the indicator characteristics and specific contents of different types of heritages, each type of composite agricultural heritage systems is named, with their landscape characteristics classified, operation models mapped, and conservation and utilization mechanisms summarized.

Results The uniqueness of agricultural heritage is mainly reflected by regional landscape characteristics and the characteristic industrial development of such heritage. In addition, in agricultural heritage, agricultural production is closely related to landscape conditions with natural environment as the core. Based on production methods, the landscape characteristics and circulation patterns of five types of composite systems are summarized, including inland traditional farming type, mountainous agricultural and forestry characteristic type, circular symbiotic system type, offshore fishery resource type and agricultural and fishery production in lake areas type. In almost all models, different industries such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery participate in the internal circulation of corresponding composite systems. In combination with indicator data and heritage content, this research summarizes the landscape characteristics of the composite systems, and tries to put forward the reference experience of each type of composite system for similar areas in China according to the interpretation of their respective landscape characteristics. On this basis, according to the contents of the heritage application and preservation plan, this research objectively analyzes the problems of Japanese agricultural heritage in the process of land control and subsequent preservation plan implementation.

Conclusion A set of indicator system for dividing the types of Japanese agricultural heritage is determined, and 5 classifications are conducted to summarize their characteristics. The landscape characteristics of various composite systems obtained by clustering and the internal operation models of such systems highlight the protection and utilization mechanisms of agricultural heritage landscape in such areas as ecology, society and economy in Japan. Although there are still problems such as weak government participation and uncontrollable future development direction in the policy implementation and management of agricultural heritage in Japan, the country’s overall conservation of the production and landscape spaces of the composite systems has achieved results in heritage revitalization at the ecological, economic and social levels, effectively realizing the inheritance of regional brands and the development of the “sixth industry” featuring the integrated of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries with agriculture as the core, and emphasizing the overall influence of the area where each heritage is located. Japan’s experience in the excavation and utilization of non-agricultural landscape space and the active participation of multiple social subjects is worthy of learning for the conservation and utilization of China’s agricultural heritage.