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

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.

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