“Let’s cook more rice!” The popular MAFF YouTubers “Tagayase Kyushu” and Farm Minister Nogami (middle) posing in the minister’s office in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. (Photo by MAFF)
TOKYO, May 3 – “Let’s cook and enjoy delicious rice!” As part of the efforts to increase domestic rice consumption, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) began posting its official videos to talk about the delight of rice and the joy of cooking rice. The ministry’s official YouTube channel Buzz Maff has joined the initiative launched by Japan’s agricultural cooperatives group (JA Group). Its first official video on rice garnered several tens of thousands of views by featuring the first close encounter between a popular Buzz Maff duo and Japan’s farm minister, Kotaro Nogami.
The national campaign to boost rice consumption was launched by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH) of Japan in March. It’s dubbed “Gotako Challenge!” (“Gotako” has double meanings, “cooking rice” and “happiness.”) The farm ministry and regional agricultural administration offices now work together on the project under their own title, “Gotako Challenge! Itadaki-MAFF!” (meaning “Cook rice and share happiness! Now, Let’s eat!”).
The first movie was created by one of the teams in Buzz Maff, Tagayase-Kyushu” (meaning “Cultivate Kyushu!”), which holds a Buzz Maff record of 890,000 views. In the video, Yusei Shiraishi, a 24-year-old MAFF official, cooked Hinohikari-brand rice raise by his ground mother in Kagoshima Prefecture using a traditional rice kettle. Then, the two made onigiri rice balls and served them to Nogami in his office.
One of the highlights of the video is the interaction between the nervous-looking young officials and Nogami making his first appearance on the channel. “Please cook and enjoy delicious rice,” the minister says in the video, and only in the first three days, it was viewed more than 20,000 times and received comments like “I want to try Hinohikari” and “I’m in the mood for onigiri rice balls now.”
The official MAFF website also has a link to Buzz Maff YouTube channel. Other videos on rice include the one showing how to cook rice using a plastic bag and another introducing a local restaurant that serves a very special rice bowl topped with special raw eggs. The channel is planning to post more videos on rice.