JAPAN Strawberry Sensation

日本いちごセンセーション

by Manami-Etsuko Uehara

Today, strawberries are one of the biggest exports from Japan to the rest of Asia. The farmers have, in true Japanese style, mastered the art of growing and cultivating this deliciously bright red sweet juicy fruit.

Strawberries are so popular in Japan that even a house in Tokyo exists in the shape of a strawberry. Although it does not sell strawberries,it’s still a testament to how loved this fruit is.

So well-known and popular are Japanese strawberries that they are now part of several tourist trails, especially during harvest time with many pick-your-own greenhouse and open field opportunities. Strawberry picking is a popular past-time in many areas of Japan, including Yamanashi, Niigata, and Kochi Prefectures.

In addition, the Japanese are also the largest consumers of raw strawberries in the world!

During the six-to-eight week period in June and July in the summer in the United Kingdom, strawberries are at their best and a must-eat! They are synonymous as the food to eat, with fresh cream during the annual Wimbledon Tennis Championships each year. In 2019, there were 191,930 portions of strawberries served, that’s approx. 27 tons of strawberries! Popularity is so great that the varieties of strawberry and season have widened giving Early Season, Midseason, and Late Season fruits.

In Japan, they currently cultivate 312 varieties of strawberries, with approx. 50 varieties available in the marketplace. The 4 top varieties are とちおとめ (tochiotome), あまおう (amaou), 紅ほっぺ (benihoppe), and さがほのか (sagahonoka).

In a normal supermarket a packet of strawberries costs about UK£2.40-UK£3.60, and in a higher end store 15 strawberries can cost about UK£24-UK£30.

In season a standard supermarket punnet of strawberries weighing 400g would cost approx.

UK£2.50.

There is something very satisfying about picking any of your own food and the same goes for strawberries (except you must remember to put them in your basket and not eat them as you pick!)

outside in dripping with bright only for an afternoon. Picking your own strawberries is great fun and above all, if done the old fashioned way, as you travel up the rows of heavily laden plants, red jewels, you smell the warm summer earth and truly get back to nature; even if

Some Japanese strawberry farms allow you to pick and eat as many strawberries as you like. There is a time limit of around 45 minutes, during which you can eat the strawberries!

All across Japan strawberries plantations can be found, both in open fields and in greenhouses, with most offering opportunities for fruit picking at the right time for the harvest. It all depends on the weather and where in Japan they are grown.

If picking from a greenhouse, then the season is often longer as the climate inside is more stable, but the outdoor weather does determine when the harvest will begin. Warms region of Japan will see harvest earlier than colder regions.

For tradition open-field strawberry picking the weather is everything and the season is short. Hokkaido is a popular place for strawberry picking.

Bijin Hime Strawberry

This is the Bijin Hime (meaning Beautiful Princess) Strawberry; a giant species that is about the size of a tennis ball and weighs over 100grs. It is strawberry ‘royalty’ with a price tag to match, selling for approximately UK£350 per strawberry!

The strawberries are grown in the fertile soil of Hashima-shi located between Kiso River and Nagara River and are the most expensive strawberry in the world, partly due to the very limited number of 500 fruits produced each year. The process required to cultivate the strawberry is very complex and it took over 15 years of trial and error for the farmer to get it right and to grow the fruit.

Other than the picking season on mainland Japan, the tropical island of Okinawa also offers many opportunities for strawberry picking as its climate is so conducive to growing the fruit, giving more red juicy fruit. With many farms across the island the harvest season is almost all year round, the most popular places are Ginoza and Nakagusuku villages as well as at Minatogawa.

So next time you are in Japan, take the sweetness of summer with you and visit a strawberry field!