Tourism Japan's food makers aim at foreign visitors with fermentation tourism

thomas · 9 Dec 2024

Japanese food manufacturers, particularly those producing miso paste and soy sauce in the central region, are capitalising on the growing interest of foreign tourists in Japanese fermented foods and culinary traditions. More and more tourists are visiting factories that produce soybean paste, a favourite of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu , and dining at traditional Japanese ryotei restaurants. These restaurants often serve narezushi, an early form of sushi made by fermenting fish in rice. Despite its strong, distinctive aroma, narezushi is a popular dish among seafood enthusiasts.

A tourism official noted that the traditional manufacturing processes of these foods are visually appealing to a growing global audience. Plans are underway to offer guided tours of local factories to introduce visitors to the fermented specialities of the Tokai region.

Nobutaro Asai, president of Maruya Hatcho Miso Co, in Okazaki (photo credit: Kyodo)

Foreign visitors who toured Maruya Hatcho Miso Co, a miso production factory in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, with a nearly 700-year history, said they admired how the long, labour-intensive process of manufacturing miso is taken for granted these days. Founded in 1337, the company has preserved its time-honoured method since before the Edo period, placing high-quality soybean koji, salt and water in large wooden vats, sealing them with a pyramid of heavy rounded stones and leaving them untouched for two full years. In recent years, the factory has attracted visitors not only from within Japan but also from Taiwan, Europe, and other parts of the world. "We wish to convey a true sense of Japanese culture from our small brewery," said Maruya Hatcho President Nobutaro Asai, 75. Kawaramachi Izumiya, a ryotei restaurant in Gifu, central Japan, which serves fermented and aged narezushi made by adding rice to salted ayu sweetfish, has been attracting several groups of foreign tourists each week since last year.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/12/68b13a0afa11-feature-japans-food-makers-eye-fermentation-tourism-for-foreign-visitors.html

We visited Kakukyu Hatchō Miso in 2012:

Travel Article 'Okazaki Travel Guide'

Okazaki City is located southeast of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture and prospered in the Edo period (1600-1868) as a castle town and an important post-station along the Tōkaidō Road. HistoryIn the Sengoku period (1467-1568), the area of modern-day Aichi Prefecture was controlled by the Matsudaira...

JREF
3 Aug 2013
Updated 10 Apr 2025
3 min read
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Category: Aichi
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Tourism Japan's food makers aim at foreign visitors with fermentation tourism

thomas

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Travel Article 'Okazaki Travel Guide'

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