REGIONAL STRENGTHTokyo 2020: Australia’s Paralympic team enjoys a taste of Fukushima peaches. Jan Adams, the Australia’s
ambassador to Japan, says that good food is an excellent way for the two countries to strengthen their ties.
AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY, TOKYO

Bountifully blessed by nature, Fukushima Prefecture is famous not only for its rice, but also for such fruits as peaches, and strawberries, as well as
livestock farming. Last year, exports reached their highest level since official record-keeping began in 2005.

THE FLAVOR OF
FUKUSHIMA
LIGHTS UP RECONSTRUCTION
Nearly 11 years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Fukushima Prefecture suffered severe damage inthe disaster, but today it is well on its way to recovery, with exports of agricultural products surpassing pre-earthquake
levels. The world has come to love the “delicious tastes of Fukushima.”
Fukushima has been doubly
blessed by nature with anabundant water system and plentyof fertile soil. Diverse weather
patterns and landscapes within
the prefecture nurture a variedand robust farming industry. Widetemperature differences between
day and night improve the flavor of
its rice, and the summer heat in thebasin-shaped valleys intensifies thesweetness of its peaches.
Fukushima has always beena cornucopia of food products,
but an accident at the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
following the Great East Japan
Earthquake of 2011 led to a painful
era, when demand waned for its
vaunted agricultural and marine
products. Shipping restrictions
andreputational
damagedampened the consumption of
Fukushima’s food products, andmany foreign countries imposed
import restrictions that resulted
in a decline of exports from theprefecture.
Yet consumer confidence has
gradually returned, thanks tostringent pre-shipping monitoringof contamination and additional
scientific proof of the safety ofFukushima’s food products. At one
point, 55 countries and regions
worldwide imposed restrictions
on food imports from Japan,
but many have now abolishedor eased them. For example, theUnited States lifted all restrictions
last September, announcingthat 10 years of sampling foodproducts from Japan had led to thedetermination that imports fromthe country posed very low risk toconsumers. The European Union
likewise eased its restrictions inOctober, while Taiwan recentlyannounced this February that it,
too, would relax restrictions onimports from Japan. As restrictions
have eased, exports have increased,with the prefecture exporting 332
tons of agricultural products from
April to December in 2021—thehighest figure since the prefecture
began keeping records in 2005.
At the Tokyo 2020 Games held
last year, athletes, coaches, andother participants enjoyed thetaste and succulence of Fukushimapeaches. The prefecture presented
the Dominican Republic baseballteam with a large quantity of thefruit, which disappeared in no timeat all. Ken Eriksen, head coach of
the U.S. softball team, gave a nodto the peaches at a post-practiceinterview in Fukushima, confiding
with a grin that he had devoured ahalf dozen at his hotel.
Not to be forgotten when
speaking of Fukushima specialties
is its sake. Daishichi Sake BreweryCo., Ltd. produces sake made by
the orthodox kimoto method, apainstaking process that requires
the fermenting yeast mash to
be prepared entirely by hand.
Daishichi has been actively
exporting its brew—which ishighly regarded abroad for its
mellow flavor—since the late
1990s. “Although Japanese sake has
the same high qualities of depth
and umami as full-bodied Westernwines, for a long time it was almost“The yeast mash essential for thefermentation of kimoto sake isprepared entirely by hand, andthat is the secret of its depth offlavor,” says OHTA Hideharu,
the representative of Daishichi
Sake Brewery.

Xavier Thuizat, head sommelier at Hôtel de Crillon, a famed five-star
hotel in Paris, compared Daishichi sake to the best of Burgundy wines,
calling it the Romanée-Conti of Japanese sake.

Exports of alcohol achieved their highest level in FY 2019 and thoseof agricultural products their highest level in FY 2020 *Exports ofalcohol slightly decreased due to COVID-19 in FY 2020.

unknown to the rest of the world,”
says OHTA Hideharu, the 10thgeneration owner of Daishichi.
The company undertook to open
up foreign markets in collaboration
with other breweries, initially by
enforcing strict quality-control
measures such as refrigerated
transportation, to ensure thatthe sake reached foreign markets
in optimal condition. They also
promoted their products at
restaurants and liquor shops toadvertise the charms of Japanesesake. These efforts gradually bore
fruit and led to an increase inexports. Daishichi was eventuallyasked to provide sake for a banquet
hosted by the Dutch royal family.
“Not too long after the earthquake,
we were invited once again to takepart in a banquet and serve sake tothe guests. It heartened us that wecould showcase the quality, safety,
and reputation of a product from
Fukushima,” Ohta recalls.
“It’s impossible to summarize theappeal of Fukushima products in asingle word or phrase. The varietyof the landscape produces so many
delicious foods—fruit, vegetables,seafood, soba noodles. . . . All we
can do is take their flavors to aneven higher level and share themwith the rest of the world.”