THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

A factory deserted for decades after once thriving as a producer of floppy disks has made a comeback, growing spinach and baby leaf lettuce.
 
Major electronics maker Toshiba Corp. has set up a vegetable farm inside the factory in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. The plant had been unused since the production of its last floppy disks in the early 1990s.
 
When the first crops are shipped in late October, the company will use some of the vegetables in its employee cafeterias. Toshiba plans to eventually have the crops sold as salads or bags of cut vegetables at convenience stores and supermarkets.
 
The 2-square-kilometer factory, on the premises of a Toshiba subsidiary, was recommissioned because its clean room, free of contaminants such as dust, remained intact.
 
The facility is expected to produce 3 million units of vegetables, including leaf lettuce and herbs, annually from fiscal 2015. Toshiba has forecast annual sales of 300 million yen ($2.73 million).
 
The company is also considering using some of its unused spaces in factories overseas for similar purposes.
 
In May, electronics giant Fujitsu Ltd. began shipping vegetables produced in the clean room of a shut-down semiconductor factory in Fukushima Prefecture.