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Japan launches sushi diplomacy
20/07/2005 12:20 - (SA)
Tokyo - As Japan tries to boost its global clout using "soft power," culinary experts are launching a campaign to double the number of people abroad who eat Japanese food.
If the effort is successful, within five years 1.2 billion people around the world will dine on sushi, tempura or other Japanese dishes at least once a year.
The 14-member private-sector panel led by Yuzaburo Mogi, chairman of the world's top soy sauce maker Kikkoman, got to work in the wake of a government report on better marketing of Japanese brands abroad.
"The Japanese food culture is a speciality that we should spread around the world," Kikkoman spokesperson Takaharu Nakamura said.
But he said the campaign has one big obstacle: raw fish.
Nakamura said some non-Japanese cooks were not careful enough in handling raw fish, causing problems over freshness or parasites.
"In terms of food safety, we need to solve these problems. Otherwise they would worsen Japan's image," he said.
Nakamura said the campaign would start next year to double the number of Japanese-food eaters abroad from the current estimate of 600 million.
"Our urgent task is to make a text ... which will be a Japanese version of Le Guide Culinaire," he said in reference to the French recipe book published in 1902 by legendary chef Auguste Escoffier.
The group plans to dispatch Japanese cooks abroad and offer training of foreign cooks, he said.
It also wants to educate Japanese people on their traditional food, he said.
The government study had urged Japan to be not only a high-tech leader but also use "soft power" to gain influence as its films, cartoons, food and other entertainment draw an increasingly strong following overseas.
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