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 other, as the combination of red and white is a symbol for auspicious or happy occasions.
Funasho’s fruit osechi comes in three stacked boxes filled with colorful domestically-grown fruits to celebrate the New Year.
The second box is filled with grape varieties of different colors produced in Nagano Prefecture — pale green Shine Muscat, dark purple Nagano Purple and red purple Queen Rouge.
The third box contains an Orin greenish yellow apple and a red Sun Fuji apple, both grown in Aomori Prefecture, together with Beni Madonna, a citrus fruit from Ehime Prefecture, and a mikan tangerine also from Ehime.
The fruits can be shared among people returning to their hometown and visiting relatives’ homes.
Kyoko Sakurai, general manager of Funasho’s public relations department, said, “The product is proving popular as something to add to normal osechi or as gifts to wish good health.”
A total of 300 sets of the product, priced at 6,980 yen each, are put on sale.
People can make reservations by Dec. 29 to purchase it and the company will stop accepting orders once all the products are reserved.