Nearly 1,900 companies and organizations of food industry including wholesalers participated in one of the biggest business events in Japan, “Supermarket Trade Show 2016,” opened on Feb. 10 at Tokyo Big Sight. They exhibited their food products to have business talks mainly with people of retailers and supermarkets during three days through Feb. 12. The trade show was organized by an apex body of supermarkets, New Supermarket Association of Japan (NSAJ), to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The exhibition was highlighted by a number of booths filled with innovative food products to appeal their “convenience” and “safety” to female shoppers of housemakers and office workers in their twenties and thirties. In … Continue reading →

An outdoor ice skating rink set up at a paddy field, known as “tanbo (paddy field) rink,” reopened this winter at the Yamakiya district of Kawamata-machi in Fukushima prefecture after a five-year hiatus caused by the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company in March 2011. Decontamination work was completed in the district last summer. And preparation for reopening the rink was also made by local leaders who wished to revitalize their rural community. Every weekend, the “tanbo rink” is filled with a lot of kids enjoying ice skating. The rink was created by allowing water to ice up on the paddy field … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →