Seventy percent of foreigners living in Japan replied, “Japanese fruits are most excellent,” to a multiple choice question of “what Japanese food have you found tasty,” in a survey conducted by Kinki Regional Agricultural Administration Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in September 2015.
The Office recently released its report on the poll, which was replied by 377 foreign residents such as university students and consular officers at Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and other prefectures in the Kinki region.
Strawberry gained the highest popularity of those respondents among the various fruits produced in the country. More than 60 percent of the respondents chose rice, non-alcoholic drinks and sea foods as delicious foods. Traditional fermented foods such as miso (soybean paste) and shoyu (soy sauce) were also appreciated as good foods by nearly 50 percent of them.
69 percent of those foreigners chose Japanese confectionery as the number one food which they wish to purchase as a gift when they come back to their country, followed by green teas and Japanese sake. With regard to the most important point taken into consideration for food purchases, “price” was picked out by 60 percent of the foreign residents, followed by 55 percent of “characteristic designs” and 54 percent of “food safety.”
(Feb. 8, 2016)