In a sprawling greenhouse shot through with shiny silver ducts, flower prints share space with the distinctive red Toyota logo on stacks of cardboard boxes.
The giant vehicle group is using Asia's largest greenhouse for potted flowers in an experiment aimed at putting to use carbon dioxide (CO2), which is blamed for global warming.
'Nowadays, you automatically think of C02 as a villain. But it is what plants need to grow,' said Mr Teruo Takatomi, Toyota Floritech chief.
The system generates power by burning natural gas. It uses electricity for the lighting, 'waste' heat for warming water and emitted carbon dioxide aimed at plants to promote photosynthesis.
'You have gas emissions when you generate electricity. After removing nitrogen oxide from the gas, C02 is returned here for plants to inhale,' farm chief Takuya Sato said, pointing to the overhead ducts in the greenhouse stretching across 20,000 sq m.
The new system, launched in March, is expected to help the company slash C02 emissions by up to 460 tonnes a year, he said.
The farm is the first large commercial facility in Japan to introduce a form of 'trigeneration' system - production and use of three different resources from a single fuel, according to project partner Kansai Electric Power.
The system comes with a machine that provides high-oxygen water to help invigorate plant roots.
'The point of the system is to generate power and use the byproduct too, leaving almost nothing wasted,' said energy business official Hiroshi Teshima of Kansai Electric.
'People who grow plants say C02 during winter is as effective as sunlight.'
Kansai Electric, Toyota Floritech and other companies spent 70 million yen (S$889,000 ) to install the system at the greenhouse on the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu, a few minutes' drive from a major nuclear plant.
Another 120 million yen was spent to switch the energy source from heavy oil to natural gas by building a satellite tower to store liquefied natural gas.
'Agriculture, of course, absorbs CO2, thanks to photosynthesis, but we hope this system will help cut the gas further,' said Mr Masao Ikoma, managing director of Kansai Electric.
Toyota Floritech is a 50-50 joint venture between Toyota Motor and Hakusan, a Japanese firm dealing with seeds and seedling.
The basic design of the automated farm is from Denmark. It employs only eight full-time staff, with 30 to 40 part-time workers.
Expertise provided by Toyota Motor, reputed for its production efficiency, is not always relevant to agriculture, farm chief Sato said.
'We have received useful tips. For example, these lines,' he said, referring to white and yellow lines drawn on the floor to mark areas for humans and for machines.
'But we are handling living things. Supposing you are assembling a car, you would not miss the schedule even by one day. But it is totally impossible to keep plant production precisely on time.'
Mr Sato, 39, has no prior experience in agriculture. His last job was as a manager of a bar in a trendy part of Tokyo
'I sometimes feel like talking to flowers...when they have not bloomed a day before their shipment,' he said.
