TOKYO —

Shigeru Ishiba, minister of agriculture, and two celebrities took part in a campaign this week to promote Japanese food and domestic agriculture as part of “EAT JAPAN in Tokyo Marunouchi” campaign which will be held through Sunday.

TV sports presenter Masami Tanaka, celebrity Ricako, and TV sports presenter Miyu Yamamoto took part in the talk show and dining event. Ricako, 42, said, “I joined the campaign because I want children to eat healthy and tasty Japanese food.”

Ishiba also said that Japan needs to raise its food self-sufficiency rate.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

• 

  some14some at 02:26 PM JST - 25th October

  Healthy and tasty? That's asking for alot especially when you add made-in-Japan to the requirements. I notice that the word SAFE wasn't mentioned ???

  How can they talk about safety when Ag. Ministry sold tons of contaminated rice to food dealers for as cheap as Y3-10 per kilogram.

• 

  natosucks at 07:45 PM JST - 25th October

  i read about the Agriculture minister, and they said he won a lots of money when "help" to keep secrets...

• 

  outofmydepth at 07:58 PM JST - 25th October

  mmmmm- tainted rice anyone???

• 

  Smythe at 09:29 PM JST - 25th October

  I am totally ignorant of farming in Japan, but as an ex-fruit orchardist I do hope that Japanese farmers make a adecent income & can stay in business for they are up against weather, droughts, costs of any equipment to possibly costs of hiring assistance & so much more.

  Farming is so diffent to a normal worker hired by some business manager.

• 

  Smythe at 09:33 PM JST - 25th October

  Sorry, but I forgot to mention that some countries in Europe, France for instance, pay to keep their farmers in business. Doubt if Japanese farmers are paid as so mentioned.

• 

  franz75 at 10:30 PM JST - 25th October

  Smythe: don't worry, they get load of subventions

• 

  Sammi33 at 08:43 AM JST - 26th October

  Children ARE eating Japanese food. I work at kindergartens and I see it every day in their bentos. White rice, a few pieces of some chicken, pork, or fish that's deep fried in batter, a few meatballs or sausages, a piece of omelet, and a spoonful of some mayonnaise laden "salad", a slice of something pickled, and for dessert a small wedge of apple with the skin peeled off. And a few hours after they eat they might eat some cakes or cookies made with some Japanese pumpkin or sweet potato. Very healthy indeed! I would like some healthy Japanese food too. But all I see around me is gyu-don, katsu-don, yakisoba, sushi, udon, etc. Where's the tofu? The brown rice? The grilled fish? The seaweed salad with light dressing? Most of the Japanese food in the conbinis and restaurants (and family restaurants) is starches, fried foods, not enough vegetables and not what I consider healthy. I've found healthier food back in America, because most restaurants do offer vegetarian/low fat/low cal alternatives, but I've never seen that in Japan.

• 

  thepro at 10:44 AM JST - 26th October

  Too many chemicals for me. I hate to see the effects on Japanese people within the next 50 years with all these dodgy companies out there.

• 

  outofmydepth at 02:25 PM JST - 26th October

  i dont think i will when you put all the news together from i dont know how long ago. today ito ham....tomorrow???????

• 

  30061015 at 01:45 AM JST - 27th October

  I worked at a Japanese kindergarten in th 80's and the bentos back then did not rely on all the frozen breaded deep fried globs for the microwave.

  I think japan is starting to wake up. Promoting domesticly produced food is ultimateluy wise. Why pay someone else 1000's of miles away for frozen fried globs when you can grow better and healthier food at home?

  As distribution of high calorie processed foods is automated and corporate farming is driven by our malignant consumer culture, hydrocarbon humans spend a disproportionate amount of time consuming calories rather than burning them (especially in SUV fast food America.) Our leisure society, founded on immediate gratification and convenience, now has more time than ever to indulge its naturally selected affinity for a wide variety of surplus sugars and microwavable fats. We are all slowly being poisoned by our dependency on the system. Its way past time to get back to the garden.

• 

  borscht at 11:26 AM JST - 27th October

  Its way past time to get back to the garden.

  True, true, true. All we need now are a few people willing to do all the hard work for very little pay while the rest of us surf the net looking for forums.

• 

  pointofview at 01:17 PM JST - 27th October

  The healthiest thing about Japanese food is the amount of vegetables consumed. Unfortunately, Im not very interested in eating konyaku, every kind of fish known to man and chikuwa. Sorry, but this isnt food to me... There is lots of healthy and tasty food in this world to eat not just Japanese food. I think a large number of people are becoming more interested in other ethnic foods which is good.

• 

  boobug at 12:10 PM JST - 28th October

  So whats to promote ? Fujiya cakes ? MeatHope ? Mikasa Foods ? Itoham ? The list goes on.

  "Ricako, 42, said, “I joined the campaign because I want children to eat healthy and tasty Japanese food.”

  Like Instant noodles, 500 yen chemical laced bentos, or Japanese style curry rice ? Those are what the Japanese eat today ! Oh yeh, and of course McDonalds ! Don't believe me ? Check the sales figures !

• 

  frontandcentre at 02:16 PM JST - 28th October

  Just another effort to try and support giving more of our tax Yen to farmers across the country to subside ludicrously inefficient farming practices on uneconomically small farms, and then still important by far the majority of Japan's food from the U.S., South America, China and other parts of Asia.

  You have to wonder...

• 

  sf2k at 03:00 PM JST - 28th October

  it's more interesting to note that most of the fish Japanese eat come from far reaches of the world and the Mediterranean and not Japan. This is a food source in massive decline. So yeah, Japan better support local food, because it's not going to be fish. Where do you think the tuna came from?

  love japanese food, wish I ate more of it. It was always filling and not heavy. I also hope they continue their stand against GMO?

Register or Login to leave a comment