EHIME, FUKUSHIMA, Apr. 23—Many Japanese sake, cocktails, and other alcoholic beverages made with yeasts taken from flowers are hitting the market in quick succession, featuring various flower fragrances. Sake brewers use yeasts taken from local flowers and put flowery labels on their bottles to target young and female customers in Japan and overseas. The Ehime Sake Brewery Association of Ehime Prefecture has spearheaded the creation of the Ehime Sakurahime Series sake. The unique brews are made with Ehime Sakurahime yeast, a brewery yeast isolated from Sakurahime pink delphinium, bred in Ehime Prefecture, in industry-government-academia research. A total of 22 breweries in the prefecture participated in the first-ever prefectural effort to … Continue reading →

TOKYO, April 21 — JA ZEN-NOH, the marketing arm of the JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) group, has developed a domestically-produced premium wine, the first wine to be marketed under its Nippon Yell brand featuring Japan-made farm produce. The wine was produced in cooperation with JA Fuefuki, a farm coop in Yamanashi Prefecture. It is priced at 20,000 yen a bottle, the highest price among Nippon Yell brand products, and is sold at a duty-free shop in Haneda Airport in Tokyo. JA ZEN-NOH, or the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, is aiming to expand sales channels for domestically-produced items by marketing the product at the duty-free shop filled with inbound … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Apr. 11 – In April this year, a subsidiary of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH), Rakuo Kyodo Nyugyo Co., Ltd., started to sell two “Nokyo-Kaju-brand fruit juice products, “Wakayama-ken-san Mikan” and “Kudamono Mix” to help boost fruit production in Japan. The Nokyo-Kaju-brand juice was first released in 1973 by Zenkoku Nokyo Chokuhan Co., Ltd., a predecessor of Megmilk Snow Brand Co., Ltd., and sold until March 2010. “Wakayama-ken-san Mikan,” which means mandarin oranges from Wakayama Prefecture, is made 100% of Wakayama-grown mandarin oranges. The producer removes peels and skins and squeezes only pulp to ensure a smooth and clean taste with no bitterness. “Kudamono Mix,” meaning … Continue reading →

IBARAKI, April 12 — A row of cherry trees along an irrigation channel in Tsukubamirai, Ibaraki Prefecture, are now in full bloom. The row of cherry trees, made up mainly of some 450 Somei-yoshino variety trees, extends roughly 1.8 kilometers on the embankments of the irrigation canal managed by the Fukuoka Dam Land Improvement District, a local irrigation association. Local residents cherish the blossoms, calling them the Fukuoka Dam cherry blossoms. The Fukuoka Dam takes water from the Kokai River that runs along the border of the cities of Tsukubamirai and Joso in Ibaraki Prefecture. It supplies water to approximately 30 square kilometers of rice fields in the two cities … Continue reading →