If miso is part of your daily routine, "you're having a decent life," says Tony Flenley, Japan's only British miso maker. Flenley, who runs a 105-year-old miso company in Osaka, believes the time taken to prepare and eat the soup shows the right priorities have triumphed over a fast food lifestyle.
"People eat it less now," says the managing director of Osaka Miso Jozo in central Osaka. He has run the company for 20 years, and has seen big changes in the trade of one of Japan's traditional foodstuffs, miso paste, the soup stock renowned for its nutritious, delicious and healthful qualities.
The Englishman first came to Japan in 1977 after graduating from the University of Swansea, South Wales. He opted for English teaching, choosing Japan over Spain as his first work location. While teaching he met and married a local girl whose father had been running a well-established miso business from a few years after World War II.