My editor at The Japan Times has a very simple policy when hunting for cheese in Tokyo: He checks the label and if it was made in Japan (excepting Hokkaido), he puts it straight back down. To my editor I am now happy to reveal that Nagano is fast joining the elite ranks.
The landlocked prefecture in Honshu's Chubu region is home to several dairy farms. Their average quality is quite high, and at least a few of them make cheese that is every bit as good as the more celebrated names from Europe.
For centuries Japan was a cheese-free country, mainly due to religious concerns, as keeping livestock and eating meat went against Buddhist beliefs. As a consequence, dairy products were never really a major part of the Japanese diet. Cheese wasn't introduced to the general populace until after World War II, and even then it was primarily low-cost processed cheese, which may explain the current public preconception of what cheese tastes like.