Dairy comes in surprising places

Despite what you may think about the traditional dairy-free Japanese diet, milk continues to make steady inroads, most recently showing up in a number of FMCG food products that have proved surprising hits.

The latest is this questionable Milk Curry cup noodles from Nissin, which joins Milk Seafood and Cheese Curry in the pro-dairy instant soup line-up.

Milk isn’t just an ingredient, but a draw on its own at Hokkaido-based Motoyama Milk’s newly opened Motoyama Milk Bar in the Roppongi Hills shopping complex.

The stylish, modern soda fountain features milk shakes served by “milk maids” in somewhat convincing costume, plus an assortment of other milky menu items. Gimmicky and pricey, yes, but sure to draw visitors.

Meanwhile, industry giant Meiji Dairy, announced plans to open a simulated cheese factory this month, called Tokachi Cheese Plaza in Hokkaido. Tourists who flock to Hokkaido in the summer to escape the heat can watch a simulated process of natural cheese production, have their questions answered at the PR corner, and dine in the restaurant.

Since Hokkaido is well-known to be the dairy producing region in Japan, manufacturers who want a piece of the current appetite for local foods are playing up their Hokkaido connections. TV talent Tanaka Yoshitake (from the northern region of Japan, just shy of Hokkaido), has produced a series of Hokkaido Fresh Caramels that are made from fresh cream and New Zealand white honey. They also come in rustic cheese wheel packaging to highlight the dairy connection.

Judging by the amount of press these little sweets (¥850 for 12) have gotten since they debuted at the beginning of this month, visitors to Hokkaido this summer will no doubt be scooping them up by the bagful as souvenirs.

Tags: beverages, FMCG, food, Hokkaido

Highschoolers making healthier convenience stores

We’ve been noting for sometime that convenience stores are working to offer healthy alternatives to the fried chicken and barbecue pork buns that have given them a reputation for fast and fattening food. So what is interesting about the new “healthy lunchbox” available at Ministop convenience stores in the Kinki region isn’t so much the waistline friendly tofu hamburger and 15 different grain rice, but the fact that the product was conceived and developed by high school students.

The healthy lunchbox (¥430), pictured left, versus typical Ministop fare (¥128-¥240), right.

16 students from three Osaka City vocational high schools who participated in a business-training tutorial proposed the idea last October and spent five months developing a sample product that was tested this February. The final shelf-ready lunchbox will debut on May 13th. Good work kids!

Tags: Convenience Stores, FMCG, food, health

Weekly Blog Parts: Cup Noodle Timer

Nissin, maker of the classic Cup Noodle instant ramen that has helped keep students in beer money for a few decades, has now begun a campaign to modernize in an ECO-friendly way. Gone are the old polystyrene cups, and in are the paper cups that have been dominating the low-calorie instant ramen market as of late.

Nissin has already been producing it’s Eco Cup refills for some time now, but this doesn’t seem to have caught on well with consumers who prefer a cup with their Cup Noodles.

Above is an embeddable “blog part” widget that can be your private cup noodle timer.

Pour. Click. Eat.

Tags: Blog Parts, FMCG, food

Bandai, Takara Tomy get cute in the kitchen

Ever since the Chuboo line of fun kitchen tools caught our eye (and CNN’s too!), we’ve been noticing what can only be described as a boom in cutesy kitchen gadgets that can be enjoyed by moms (or dads) and kids alike. Major toy companies like Bandai and Takara Tomy put out their share of toy like kitchen appliances last year and have plans in the works to release more this year.

Bandai scored big with its Cook Joy series, featuring the Norimaki Mak-ki (¥2,940), a device that helps small, uncoordinated fingers roll out near-perfect sushi rolls, and the Ichi Ni Sando (¥3,150) sandwich press, which makes fun shaped “sandwiches” out of bread or rice.

Meanwhile Takara Tomy had a hit with its Sugar Bunnies-themed Ice Cooking (¥4,200) ice cream maker last summer and now has plans to release an Onigiri (rice ball) Party (¥3,675) making kit with the same character images this June.

All of the above made from colorful plastic and are hand-controlled, electricity and oven-free, focusing on either lunch box material or after school snack foods. Of course what is particularly interesting about these products is that, in contrast to the kiddy cake baking kits popular in other countries, many of these sets teach kids to make traditional Japanese food, which makes me think maybe I should pick one up myself.

Tags: food, kids, kitchen

Eco-friendly inventions for household appliances

The current mania for all things eco is producing a fair number of impressive innovations in addition to the expected gimmicks. An example of the former is “Eco Tokukun” from Kankyo Souken, a product to make your household fish grill more environmentally friendly.

These small stones, made from recycled paper sludge and silica, aluminum oxide, and calcium oxide and designed to lie in the bottom of the gas grill, promise to cut carbon emissions from the cooking process by 25%. They also increase thermal efficiency, cutting cooking time by 25% and thus your gas usage (and bill). Considering that the fish grill is a kitchen appliance common to pretty much all Japanese homes, and used on a regular basis, these are pretty significant numbers.

As if all that weren’t enough, Eco Tokukun (only ¥450 a pack) also absorbs the odor and juices from the cooking fish, which eliminates waste and the need for unpleasant cleaning, and can be used up to 30 times before needing replacement.

Meanwhile another eco-gadget, the Eco Watt (¥3,150), from Enegate, aims to educate people about their own energy consumption. While similarly named products have flitted in and out of the market for a few years now, the current eco boom has brought the Eco Watt back into the spotlight in a new sleek modern form.

Plug any of your household appliances into the Eco Watt, which then itself gets plugged into the wall outlet, and the digital screen displays the amount of electricity being used, the estimated cost of said electricity, the estimated amount of carbon emissions the power use is causing, and amount of time the power has been running.

Tags: Eco, food, gadgets

Japan’s best sellers (so far) for 2008

With 2008 already a quarter over (gasp!) the Nikkei Marketing Journal gives us a round-up of a few of the hit products so far this year. First up is the “Shower Clean Suits” from men’s apparel company Konaka. This wool suit is designed to be cleaned with just a hosing from the shower head, no detergent or ironing needed. The fabric is made from a special fiber with minute holes designed for quick evaporation, allowing it too dry quickly in a shaded corner of your room.

Not only is this suit incredibly convenient, but also cost effective, saving on pricey dry cleaning fees (which, due to the rising cost of oil, have increased 5-10% recently). Since the suit debuted in February, sales have doubled expectations and would-be Shower Clean Suit owners have been waiting listed.

Next on the list are food staples, of the non-prepackaged variety like meat and vegetables (or more specifically pork and cabbage). Following a health scare earlier this year, when a shipment of pre-packaged gyoza from China was discovered to contain unhealthy amount of pesticides, the idea of eating organic and home made food has jumped from the pages of earth mama magazines into the mass media and is making, at least for now, a real impact in what consumers are buying at major grocery chains around the country.

Compared to this time last year, the purchasing of (relatively) natural foodstuffs is up 3.7%.

We were hardly surprised by the next product, sugar-free beer, since hardly a conversation goes by without someone dropping the word “metabo,” the trendy contraction for metabolic syndrome that has become a catch-all phrase for anyone who could use a little trimming around the waste.

Kirin Zero, which was released this February sold one million cases in just 20 days, a number equivalent to a quarter of the projected sales for the whole year. Likewise Suntory Zero Nama has sold 700,000 cases in the first month since its March debut, exceeding expectations by 20%.

Rounding out the list is the NTT Docomo P905i model mobile phone, which has the capacity to stream a “One Seg” digital television signal to the handset’s three-inch screen.

From Panasonic Mobile Communications, the mobile phone wing of the company behind the popular Vieja TVs, the P905i has been Docomo’s best-selling phone for four months in a row.

Any predictions for the next three months?

Tags: beverage, Fashion, food, health, Mobile

Favorite Meiji snack food immortalized in gold

On the subject of convenience store nostalgia, every child of the 80’s is familiar with Meiji Confectionery’s “Kinoko no Yama” mushroom-shaped biscuits. From this month, the favorite after school snack, which debuted in 1975, will also be available in silver and 18K gold coating instead of the usual chocolate.

Ease Design has released an accessory line in collaboration with Meiji that includes pendants and rings inspired by the bite-size snack that start at ¥10,000 and go up to ¥25,000, allowing fans of Kinoko no Yama to wear their devotion around their neck.

The cute accessories will be sold at select boutiques like United Arrows.

Not long after the press release went out, I spotted these mushroom-themed accessories at teen fashion center Shibuya 109.

Could mushrooms (snack-food inspired or not) be the next big fashion statement?

Tags: Convenience Stores, Fashion, food, nostalgia

For udon lovers, Hanamaru monthly discount pass

That udon is a beloved food in Japan is not up for question: just in the last few weeks we have reported on the mega-sized portions at the new noodle shop from champion competitive eater, Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota, and the novelty udon pudding from IchiMonji.

Whether or not people like udon enough to want to eat it everyday, is something that restaurant Hanamaru is about to find out.

From this month the noodle chain is offering a monthly Udon Pass, similar to the commuter passes that salarymen receive from the companies for their monthly commute.

For just ¥500 a month, udon lovers can receive a ¥105 discount on any order, once a day. Alternatively, the pass entitles the customers to an extra portion of noodles with any order, an upgrade equivalent to ¥105. Considering Hanamaru’s already cheap prices (a small bowl starts at just ¥198 and the most expensive item, the mini beef bowl udon set, costs only ¥699) the discount is a pretty significant percentage.

Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways to eat udon.

Tags: food, Udon

CScout Japan and CNN Today on food trends

CScout Japan Managing Director Michael Keferl was a guest on CNN Today with Kristie Lu Stout and Andrew Stevens to talk about some food trends in Japan. The focus was on our recent posts about character lunch accessories, “udon” pudding, and a new “fresh tea” bottle innovation.

Of course, the character lunches and pudding are Japan-centric (and we don’t expect to see a wave of udon pudding shops opening up either), but the bottle from Aojiru Tea has great potential for many different kinds of beverages in and out of Japan. Click the screenshot to check out the video.

Tags: , CNN, food, Press

Recycled rice Eco Chopsticks

What’s could be more eco-friendly then carrying around your own “my hashi” personal chopsticks to use instead of the ubiquitous disposable kind? Personal chopsticks made from rice-based biomass plastic, of course!

Index has released the “Rice Eco Chopsticks,” made from a polymer base of unusable rice (due to expiration, damaged packaging, etc.) and polypropelene, to which a resin is added. The final product, made of 35% rice and with 30% less carbon emissions than plastic produced by the processing of fossil fuels, comes in white and natural colors (coincidently, just like rice).

Following an appearance on Fuji TV, the environmentally correct chopsticks are available from the Fuji TV shop for ¥945.

With the eco-boom permeating just about every industry (for example here and here), we’re seeing a lot of products that tread the line between progressive and fad, however these chopsticks seem safely on the innovative side.

Tags: design, ecology, food