Author Archives: The Japan Agricultural News

One-cup sake making drinking sake easier and joyfuller

TOKYO, Mar. 10 – In the Showa era, one-up sake was just for older men, but today, it’s also for young people and foreign nationals. Naito Shoten is a local liquor shop in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, that sells more than 100 types of single-serve cup sake from all over Japan. The shop displays the sake like books on the shelves. The cups were originally designed to be sold locally, so they have distinctive designs unique to regions and breweries. As they come in small portions, people can enjoy comparing different flavors of sake from different breweries. About 15 years ago, an 84-year-old liquor shop representative, Tatsuo Tojo, came up with … Continue reading

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Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, also an advocate for agriculture, dies

TOKYO, March 9 — Akira Toriyama, a manga artist from Nagoya who created world-famous works including “Dr. Slump” and “Dragon Ball,” died of acute subdural hematoma on March 1. He was 68. Toriyama advocated the importance of agriculture and rural villages, and his adventure manga focusing on food education, titled “Oishii Shima no U-sama” (Delicious Island’s Mr. U) and published in 2009, is still loved by many children today. “Oishii Shima no U-sama” is an 18-page, A5-size full-color booklet included in “Agri Guruguru School,” a learning material for fifth-grade elementary school children produced by an agricultural and livestock industries promotion council of Aisai, Aichi Prefecture. The main character of the … Continue reading

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Traditional wasabi production in central Japan makes use of plentiful spring water

SHIZUOKA, March 4 — Shizuoka Prefecture is Japan’s top producer of wasabi — the quintessential seasoning of Japanese cuisine that the country boasts to the world. The native Japanese plant, whose lower part of the stems are grated to make spice that stimulates the nose with a sharp flavor, has been grown in a traditional way in Shizuoka, and the wasabi cultivation making use of abundant spring water, geological features and weather conditions has been added to the list of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The Ikadaba wasabi fields in the city of Izu in the central Izu Peninsula are made up … Continue reading

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Say hello to spring with rice flour buns with pink, green, and yellow rice topping

AICHI, Mar. 3 – People celebrate Hinamatsuri, the girls’ festival or the dolls’ day, on March 3 in Japan, and on March 2, Japanese-style confection stores in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, were busy making iga-manju, traditional sweets for Hinamatsuri in the Mikawa Region, or the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture today. They are steamed rice flour buns filled with sweet red bean paste and topped with cooked pink, yellow, and green glutinous rice. They are eaten to drive away evil spirits and pray for a good harvest. Izumiya, a local Japanese confectionery with a 92-year history in Okazaki City, makes iga-manju using carefully selected domestic ingredients. For example, they use … Continue reading

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A group in Ishikawa Prefecture collects more than 10 million yen in crowdfunding to recover quake-hit rice terraces

ISHIKAWA, Feb. 22 — A group working to preserve the Shiroyone Senmaida rice terraces in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, seriously damaged by the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January, launched a crowdfunding campaign to recover the terraces and managed to collect funds topping the initial target amount of 10 million yen. The rice terraces are the collection of 1,004 terraced rice fields and the symbol of Noto’s satoyama and satoumi — traditional landscapes and seascapes where humans live in harmony with the natural environment — which have been added to the list of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The … Continue reading

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