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Weed Science Lab
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A lab that studies weeds evolving in step with human life and considers how people should coexist with them.
AboutAbout the lab
How to coexist with weeds
The Weed Science Lab studies weeds, plants that evolve by adapting well to human activity.
Weeds cause harm in agriculture and other settings, but they also help support biodiversity.
To think about 'how to coexist with weeds,' the lab studies the relationships among the environment, crops, weeds, and human activity.
Undergraduates join the Plant Production Science course in their third year and are assigned to this lab within the course in their fourth year (graduate school: Division of Agronomy and Horticultural Science, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Weediness
- The tendency to survive and multiply in places shaped by people. It offers a clue for studying how weeds differ from cultivated species.
- Alien plants
- Plants brought by human activity into regions where they did not originally grow.
NewsLab news
A PhD student received the Best Presentation Award at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Weed Science Society of Japan
A PhD student received the Best Award and an Excellence Award at the Ecological Society of Japan
A PhD student received the Best Student Oral Presentation Award at IACWSC2025
Master's and undergraduate students received the Best Poster Award at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Weed Science Society of Japan
ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies the relationships among the environment, crops, weeds, and human activity. Its work covers the genetic basis of weediness, how alien plants enter and spread, weed control using microorganisms, and competition between crops and weeds.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping lines to measure weediness
The lab creates self-pollinated lines from crosses between cultivated and weedy species, and uses them as materials for measuring the degree of weediness. It is switching the materials from morning glory relatives to cultivated Japanese millet and barnyard grass.
*Illustrative imageHow alien plants enter and spread
The lab studies how alien plants brought in through trade become established and spread, including alien weeds carried in with imported grain and genetic disturbance caused by native plants used for revegetation. It also studies the adaptive evolution of weeds in places disturbed by people.
*Illustrative imageSuppressing weeds with microorganisms
The lab develops weed control technology that uses microorganisms to suppress weed growth, and works to clarify how it works. Its goal is to build a foundation for research and development of microbial herbicides.
*Illustrative imageCompetition between crops and weeds
As research useful for weed management, the lab studies competition between crops and weeds and weed risk management.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Weed Science Lab are faculty, support staff, and PhD, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorShunji Kurokawa
- Associate ProfessorYoshiko Shimono
- Assistant ProfessorMasataka Izumi
- Program-Specific Assistant ProfessorTomomi Kubo
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Farmers of forty centuries - Smoothing the soil and pulling weeds after the first working of a field of transplanted rice” Unknown photographer / Public domain (cropped)
- Developing lines to measure weediness: “Morning glory ( )” John Tann from Sydney, Australia / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- How alien plants enter and spread: “Roadside Lupins. ( )” Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand / CC0 (cropped)
- Suppressing weeds with microorganisms: “CSIRO ScienceImage 2201 Crofton weed leaf affected by Crofton rust fungus” , CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Competition between crops and weeds: “Weeds on the field edge - geograph.org.uk - 8380102” Philip Jeffrey / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (生態情報開発学分
野): “Colony of Red spider mites (Tetranychus urticae)” Aleksey Gnilenkov from Moscow, Russia / CC BY 2.0 (cropped) - Related lab
(作物学分野): “Red Rice Paddy field in Japan 005” Flickr user gtknj / CC BY 2.0 (cropped) - Related lab (植物病理学分野): “Septoria-tritici” Maccheek / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (植物生理学分野): “Marchantia polymorpha - Common Liverwort 02” Jasper Shide / CC0 (cropped)
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