Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

TOKYO, Dec. 17 — Slim, long, round, red, big — the replicas of 25 local daikon radish varieties from across Japan is attracting attention of visitors at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo’s Taito Ward. The display is the main feature of a special exhibition on washoku Japanese cuisine that illustrates how the unique culture of Japanese food was formed, from various perspectives including science and history. The exhibit was organized to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of washoku’s inclusion in the list of intangible cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2013. It is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Dec. 12 — As Japan awaits the first New Year holidays after the legal status of the novel coronavirus was downgraded to a common infectious disease, a new type of osechi traditional New Year’s assortment of food is attracting attention — one filled with various kinds of fruits. Funasho, a major intermediate wholesaler operating at Tokyo’s Ota Market, sells at its online store fruits osechi, a set of three stacked boxes containing domestically-grown fruits in season. It is their first attempt to sell fruits in triple-stacked osechi boxes. In the first box, large-size white strawberries from Saga Prefecture and red strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture are placed next to each … Continue reading →

SHIMANE, Dec. 4 – Hata Region in Higashi Izumo Town, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, is in the busiest season for producing Maruhata Hoshi-Gaki (Maruhata-brand dried persimmons). Sheds dedicated to drying persimmons, called kaki-goya in Japanese, are filled with curtains of yellow-red persimmons dancing in the wind. A 75-year-old farmer and owner of a shed, Chie Morihiro, sorts and peels locally-produced persimmons on the first floor and hangs them in the well-ventilated rooms on the second and third floors. She processes approximately 1,300 persimmons a day. She carefully controls the rooms’ moisture by opening and closing the windows to air dry the fruits for about a month until they turn light … Continue reading →

TOKUSHIMA, Dec. 4 — The Nishi-Awa area in the western part of Tokushima Prefecture is surrounded by steep mountains at high altitudes of between 100 and 1,000 meters above sea level, and the slopes are so steep that a unique farming method has been adopted to cultivate them as they are instead of converting them into terraced fields. The unique techniques and wisdom have been handed down for more than 400 years to grow indigenous varieties of buckwheat and millet. In March 2018, the steep slope land agricultural system of Nishi-Awa was designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United … Continue reading →