SETANA, Hokkaido (Kyodo) A large tractor motors along, digging up a sprawling pasture on a hilltop here to convert it into a farm.

"We are going to sow organic soybeans on the entire (roughly 60-hectare) farm," said Satoshi Takeuchi, managing director Watami Food Service Co., which operates the Watami chain of "izakaya" pubs and restaurants in Hokkaido and other parts of Japan.

Watami signed a business management contract in March with the Setana town office, which was recognized under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's deregulation program as the nation's first organic dairy special zone.