According to Katsuyasu Ito, chef and owner of L'Aureole Tanohata, Hidemitsu Kikuchi, is the last person producing imo no kona (potato flour) commercially in Japan. Working in Tanohata, a tiny village on the Sanriku coast of northeastern Iwate Prefecture, Kikuchi should be heartily applauded for ...

Shottsuru is a fish sauce made from sandfish in Akita Prefecture. When its commercial production plummeted in the early 1990s, one man made it his mission to revive the local product.

For five generations, family-owned Wadaman sesame has used their exceptional roasting process to produce top-notch sesame oils and products.

Nattō aficionados embrace its fermented nose and are addicted to its nutty, yet sharply complex flavors. But the fermented beans are not loved by everyone.

Masashi Matsuda, who died in September, became a folk hero and media darling for his fight to maintain the integrity of his product.

A free-range turkey supplier in Ishikawa Prefecture offers nostalgic North Americans a taste of home.

Milk production, which was essentially nil during the Edo Period (1603-1868), did not begin in Japan until the Meiji Era (1868-1912). But by 1975, there was already one dairy cow for every 62 Japanese people, and milk had been a standard part of school lunches ...

The seasonality of fruits, vegetables, nuts and fungi growing in the fields and mountains of Japan is fairly obvious to many of us who we are familiar with such places and foods. The seasonality of the sea, however, remains relatively unknown even among the most ...

During the New Year's holidays, many Japanese eat osechi ryōri, a collection of traditional foods developed during the Heian Period (794-1185). It originally consisted of fish or vegetables simmered in soy sauce and sweet mirin but, as the years passed, other foods were incorporated ...

Reaching Rausu, a fishing village in Eastern Hokkaido, isn't easy. Public transport is almost non-existant to this small community situated halfway up Shiretoko Peninsula, which juts out from the edge of Japan's northernmost island. Though it's remote and tiny, Rausu produces some of the ...