The deciduous fruit tree breeding group is pursuing research on the development of high-quality and easy-to-cultivate cultivars of apple, Japanese pear, chestnut, stone fruits (peach, Japanese apricot, Japanese plum), grape, and persimmon, and development of new breeding materials using genetic resources.
Since the 1930's we have been working on developing cultivars by crossbreeding fruit trees via the National Horticultural Research Station of MAFF, which is the predecessor of the Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science, NARO. So far, we have developed apple cultivar 'Fuji', Japanese pear cultivars 'Kosui', 'Hosui' and 'Akizuki', chestnut cultivars 'Tsukuba' and 'Tanzawa', peach cultivar 'Akatsuki', grape cultivar 'Shine Muscat' and persimmon cultivar 'Taishuu' etc. The cultivars 'Fuji', 'Kosui', 'Tsukuba' and 'Akatsuki' are now the most widely cultivated fruit cultivars in Japan. Recently, we are developing new fruit cultivars with delicious, easy-to-eat and easy-to-cultivate such as the superior-colored apple cultivars 'Kinshu' and 'Beniminori', the Japanese pear cultivar 'Kanta' with high sugar content, the Japanese chestnut cultivars 'Porotan' and 'Porosuke' with an easy-to-peel pellicle after heating, the peach cultivar 'Sakuhime' which is highly expected to flower normally leading to stable fruit production even if the winter temperature continues to rise due to global warming, the Japanese apricot cultivars 'Reiwa' and 'Wago' with self-compatibility, the superior-colored grape cultivar 'Grosz Krone', and the pollination constant non-astringent type persimmon cultivars 'Reigyoku' and 'Taiga' which enable stable production of delicious, easy to eat and easy to grow seedless fruits.
