insights from frontier Japan

A mango producer in northern Japan's Hokkaido which grows the tropical fruit using heat from local hot springs and harvests them in winter has begun shipping to high-end supermarkets in Hong Kong in December.

The harvesting of mangoes, grown using surplus heat from electrical generators, is in full swing in the greenhouse of the Municipal Environmental Conservation Center, a biogas plant powered by livestock manure in the town of Shikaoi in the Tokachi region of eastern Hokkaido. This year, due to the large differences in temperature during the summer, the mangoes have a high sugar content and are large in size.

On December 13, the Ainu began making ‘satcep’ (dried whole salmon), a traditional preserved food of the indigenous people, at the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park, a hub for the revitalization of Ainu culture in the town of Shiraoi in central Hokkaido.　

A new "two-sword menu" features lunchtime ramen as one "sword" and evening French cuisine as its second. Ramen shop "Asahi Shokudo" in the Northern Hokkaido town of Kamikawa has opened a French cuisine restaurant in the evenings for a limited time. The proprietor's eldest son and French cuisine chef Kamada Yuki (41) demonstrates his skill and has young chefs in the city help out so they can learn his techniques.

Oysters cultivated in the town of Shiriuchi, one of the leading oyster-producing areas in southern Hokkaido, are being landed. The oysters, which are two years old, were cultivated on ropes that had been submerged in the sea since last summer. This year’s oysters are said to be “plump and juicy,” and the ports are lively during this extremely cold season.

Scallop fishing began on November 24 at ‘new fishing grounds’ created in Nemuro Bay in eastern Hokkaido, in response to the 2016 ban on the drift-net fishing of salmon and trout within 200 nautical miles of Russia. Three vessels belonging to the Nemuro and Habomai fisheries cooperatives initially landed a total of 13.5 tons.

Two cheeses – ‘Sakura-no-Affine’ produced by the Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku Farm (Shintoku), and ‘Raclette’ produced by NEEDS (Makubetsu) – have won the Gold Award at the World Cheese Awards 2021, one of the world’s most influential international cheese shows. Including these two products, a total of four products from three cheese factories in the Tokachi region received high-ranking prizes.

‘Niseko Momiji,’ a product of Niseko Cheese Factory, a cheese manufacturer and retailer in the town of Niseko, won the Super Gold Award on November 3 at the World Cheese Awards, an international cheese contest held in Oviedo, Spain. The cheese, which is matured for two years, has a characteristically profound, savory flavor. It is the first time a Hokkaido cheese factory has won the award.

The ‘kampuboshi’ (drying in the cold sea breeze) of ‘Kenjo Nishibetsu salmon,’ which was originally offered to the Edo Shogunate, has begun in the town of Betsukai in the Nemuro region of eastern Hokkaido. The salted, matured salmon – which hang like drapes in front of the Betsukai Fisheries Cooperative building – have become part of the town’s early winter scenery as they sway in the wind. The drying will continue until early December.