“Washoku”,
Japanese cuisine, already attracts a lot of people in the world.
Toward 2020
Tokyo Olympic, this trend will grow stronger, and people both visitors and
athletes will enjoy Japanese food at the world game.
According to the
organizers of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, the food items provided for
the athletes’ village require a special certificate known as GAP (Good
Agriculture Practice).
However, only
less than one percent of the Japanese farmers hold the certificate. Some of the
reasons for such a low percentage are high cost and low awareness.
Farmers who want
to obtain the certificate have to pay nearly about one million yen, plus about
100,000 to 400,000 yen per year for a screening and more. That’s a lot for
Japanese farmers, which is mainly run by family or on a small scale. Also,
the awareness about GAP is low among people in Japan. Customers would not
accept a price rise for farmers to get this certificate, which could discourage
farmers from trying to apply this certificate.
Japan has a lot
of great farm produces including tea. At the game, people will be able to taste
those food outside of the athletes’ villages, but not there. Athletes also want
to try Japanese food with Japanese agricultural produces. and the Game will be
a good chance to showcase our food and drink.
The Japanese government is going to take measures to encourage farmers to get this certificate including grant a subsidy to farmers since GAP seems to be a big key for Japan to export domestic farm produces to the world even after the Olympics.
We have three
years to the Game. It seems that we have a lot on our plate.
