With the advent of new remote-sensing platforms and sensors such as drones, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), high-frequency observation satellites, etc., remote sensing technology is now being used to elucidate or resolve many agriculture-related issues from global food security to precision farming. This article looks back on the trajectory of the remote sensing studies on agriculture in Japan and reviews the results of studies published mainly by researchers at agricultural research institutes in four time periods since the late 1970 s, which we refer to as the “dawn and infancy period”, “development period”, “establishment period”, and “present”.