In Japan, fruit-bearing pear trees were planted over 9,820 hectares in the 2023 production year, down about 20 percent from a decade earlier, according to agricultural ministry statistics.

A group of retired school teachers from the L.A. area (team name: “m-m-m momo,” a play on the Japanese word for peach) has been coming to the Adopt-a-Tree event for 11 years. They are all ...