News Hirakata City to offer cicada candy in hometown tax gift

Starting this autumn, the city of Hirakata will add candy made from dried cicadas to the range of gifts offered through its furusato nozei hometown tax scheme. The initiative is not aimed at shock value but at highlighting sustainable food sources and supporting rural revitalisation. In July, around 50 people, including schoolchildren and their parents, joined an event at a local park to catch cicadas. The project was launched by Shimizu Kazuki (26), a graduate student at Kindai University and the founder of POI (Products of Innovation) in Nara in 2023. Ms Shimizu aims to raise awareness of the nutritional potential of insects, such as cicadas, while also helping rural communities discover new ways to sustain themselves.

Recognising that Hirakata's parks and greenery provide a habitat for many cicada species, such as the aburazemi (油蝉, large brown cicada), Shimizu used a city subsidy in fiscal 2024 to develop the candy, which has a mildly nutty flavour. He now sells it alongside other insect-based snacks on his website.

City officials realised that eating insects was also gaining global attention under the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals as a potential solution to food insecurity. That quickly led to the decision to include the cicada candy as a gift for the hometown tax program. Shimizu served as a lecturer at the cicada-catching event held in July, where he explained the insect's nutritional value. "The event catalysed for the children to begin thinking about the possibility that insects could become the food of the future," a city official said. The cicada candy will be offered from October, and city officials are now determining how much to send depending on the donation amount.

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