I just found an interesting article in English about a 27-year-old woman who has taken over a large farm in Kohoku-cho. Her name is Tanaka Sayuri and her farm is Kizu Noen. The article is here:
http://www.stella-web.jp/en/interview/tanaka01.html (link broken)
There will be Part 2 of the interview later.I also found a Japanese version:
http://www.nca.or.jp/shinbun/20060825/agri060825.html