Two weeks ago, an advisory panel to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recommended it apply to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for recognition of Japanese cuisine as an intangible cultural asset. The panel made its suggestion after UNESCO granted the same status to French and Mediterranean cooking. The chefs and restaurant owners who make up the panel originally wanted the campaign to be for kaiseki ryōri, the traditional Japanese multicourse meal, but changed their minds because a similar application by South Korea for its royal court food was rejected by UNESCO. Kaiseki is expensive and considered something only a small cross section of Japanese ever eat.
But even if UNESCO did acknowledge kaiseki as a valuable asset to world culture, what would Japan gain from it? Though the honor is supposed to be enough, nobody lobbies for these things without hoping they'll profit in some way — tangible cultural heritage sites have proven to be reliable tourist draws. In that regard, kaiseki is just too pricey and rarefied to attract enough surplus consumers to make a difference. As the Occupy Whatever movements keep reminding us, there are only so many discriminating rich people to go around, but the panel's idea of recommending the ichijū-sansai (one soup, three dishes) concept as Japan's contribution to international cuisine isn't much better, since it's mostly associated with kaiseki meals.
The panel might be better off taking a hint from the B-kyū (B-class) Gourmet movement, whose annual orgy of down-home gastronomy, the B1 Gold Grand Prix, was held last weekend in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. A record half-million people attended the festival to sample original concoctions from 63 localities and select the dish they liked best, which this year was Hiruzen yakisoba, stir-fry noodles with chicken and cabbage from the town of Miniwa in Okayama Prefecture. The winner won a golden trophy in the shape of a pair of chopsticks.