TOKYO, July 29 — Many companies in Japan are eagerly promoting food items and agricultural produce associated with France, inspired by the ongoing Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
They hope to capitalize on the event to boost sales through such products as rice balls with French taste fillings and bouquets depicting the French national flag.
The Mitsuhashi Inc., a rice wholesaler in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, started selling “Parisian Onigiri” rice balls at supermarkets in the Kanto eastern Japan region on July 26.
The rice balls, which are meant to be eaten with a knife and fork, come in two types — truffle-flavored beef with ginger butter and basil-flavored salmon and cheese — each with an expected price of around 190 yen.
Aeon Co., a major retailer, is holding the France fair in some 7,300 stores of the company’s 29 group firms nationwide until July 30.
The stores will offer rice balls with two types of fillings — olive-oil-flavored tomatoes and duck meat with demi-glace sauce.
Oisix ra daichi Inc., a grocery delivery firm, started selling a meal kit featuring recipes to make three types of Parisian taste rice balls.
Meanwhile, Merci Flower, a company based in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, which sells bouquets mainly at supermarkets, began the Tricolor flower fair at more than 100 stores, featuring flowers of three colors of the French flag.
The firm provides blue, white and red cut flowers to be sold as single-color bouquets or combined.
It chose red celosia and gloriosa flowers which are reminiscent of the Olympic torch and flame.
A meal kit with easy-to-follow recipes for making three types of Parisian taste rice balls PHOTO COURTESY OF OISIX RA DAICHI
“We hope people will decorate (their room) with the flowers when they watch the Olympic games,” an official of Merci Flower said.