Sapporo is offering a limited edition of its flagship beer brand Sapporo Black Label, called The Hokkaido. This is only available in Hokkaido and uses Hokkaido barley and hops. The hops comes from the Furano area, and the barley comes from both the Furano and the Okhotsk areas of Hokkaido. Some might be confused by Okhotsk, because that is the name of the sea north of Hokkaido as well as a Russian coastal city. This Okhotsk referred to here is a northern sub-prefecture (Hokkaido is one big prefecture). For disambiguation, I have added links to the Wikipedia pages for Okhotsk and Furano below.
サッポロビール オホーツク 富良野 北海道 大麦 ホップ
http://www.sapporobeer.jp/product/sapporo/kurolabel_thehokkaido/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furano,_Hokkaido
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okhotsk_Subprefecture
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
In honor of the Olympics in Rio, McDonald's is running a number of specials. The most prominent are the "certain victory"burgers. Certain Victory is a rough translation of the the Japanese 必勝 on the bandanas you might have seen fans wearing at sporting events. The meaning of this would also encompass "victory or bust", etc.
These two sandwiches were developed with the Olympics in mind. The pineapple of the pineapple/beef burger represents a gold medal, and the tomato of the tomato/chicken sandwich represents the rising sun of the rising sun flag. マックドナルド 必勝
http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
The premium ice cream bars from Haagen-Dazs are called crunchy crunch, and there is a new item that provides a triple blast of matcha or green tea. Matcha Crumble consists of green tea ice cream containing green tea cookie pieces covered with green tea chocolate. I must say, the food photography and layout here is pretty impressive. So if you are serious about premium ice cream and matcha, this might be worth an indulgent moment. 抹茶クランブル ハーゲンダッツ
http://maccha-crumble.jp/
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
In Yamazaki's Lunch Pack series, they now have an offering based on Otaru Ankake Yakisoba 小樽あんかけ焼そば, which is a local specialty of the Hokkaido port city Otaru. Ankake yakisoba is buckwheat noodle based chow mien noodles with a starch based topping. It is considered a "soul food" of the area and there is an organization called the Otaru Ankake Yakisoba Shineitai 小樽あんかけ焼そば親衛隊 organized to protect and promote this dish. It is this organization that collaborated with Yamazaki on the development of this product. Comments on the website complement the authentic sauce. From what I can tell, there are many varities of this specialty, but the defining element appears to be the use of local seafood. ヤマザキ ランチパック
http://www.yamazakipan.co.jp
http://otaru-ankake.sakura.ne.jp
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
For me, this appears to be where an interesting example of where a quintessentially American-type special comes into contact with a traditional Japanese holiday. Obon is the annual holiday where the souls of anecters return and families usually get together. KFC is offering an Obon barrel to cater to this family occasion. This ad also emphasizes that the chicken is all locally produced. お盆バーレル ケンタッキーフライドチキン
http://www.kfc.co.jp
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
Japanese farmers, just as the majority of farmers in all developed countries, are protected government measures. These are threatened by the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that would lower tariffs in the wider Pacific/North America area. The Japanese Communist Party is vocally taking the side of farmers. Here is a typical poster which reads "Lies and cheating . . . firmly opposed to TPP".
The summer special burgers at Wendy's are two "Asian Taste Pretzel Burgers": the Pretzel Spicy Korean BBQ Beef Burger (with a special pepper sauce) and the Pretzel Cilantro Avocado Burger (with coriander and sweet chili sauce). Wendy's is down to one location and two collaboration stores (with First Kitchen) all in central Tokyo. They have had some interesting ideas in recent years, so if you want to support this chain, now might be the time. ウェンディーズ 辛カルビバーガー パクチーアボカドバーガー
http://wendys.co.jp/
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
KitKat has introduced a green tea with bitter chocolate variety exclusively in Kyushu and Okinawa. It carries the popular Kumamon character, which is only allowed when the product contains Kumamoto Prefecture sourced ingredients. In this case the green tea is from Kumamoto. This character and Kumamoto in general have been in the hearts and minds of Japanese since the devistating earthquake in April. Buying Kumamon branded products has become one way to support the people and economy of Kumamoto. Kumamon site here. くまモン キットカット くまもと茶
http://nestle.jp
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
"An old man has started to live on my face" complains a young beautiful model. Another caption reads "No! to old man skin!" Clearly, a scary prospect for young women.
One of Morinaga's major functional yogurt is Aloe Yogurt which is a long time popular brand, claiming data associating this yogurt with blood cholesterol levels and weight loss.
Now new research has identified the 5 active aloe sterols here, and a new patent covers the activity of these sterols on stimulating fibroblasts in the skin to produce more collagen - thus the connection with younger skin and beauty. The product name Aloeste アロエステ combines Aloe with Esthetic アロエ and エステティック.
森永 ヨーグルト アロエステ
http://aloesthe.jp/
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
One of Glico's milk brands sources high quality Saga Prefecture milk through JA (also called Zen-Noh or The National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations). By the way, there is no longer a separate Glico Dairy website, Glico food products (chocolates, dairy, snacks, etc.) are now listed together even though they are made by separate subsidiaries.
グリコ JA牛乳
https://www.glico.com/jp/
Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.
