Pronto itt Juice

 The coffee shop chain Pronto has collaborated with the Spanish company AMC Juices, using their ITT technology, to develop three 100% chilled fruit-vegetable juices. ITT stands for Instant Treatment Technology and shortens the standard heat treatment time for juices to only 1/7th the time it used to take, preserving a better fresh taste. The products are called itt Juices and the attributes are summarized as "100% Straight Juice + Super Fruits & Veggie + ITT".The super fruits used in the three varieties are kale, pomegranate and acerola. itt Juices are available at all Pronto stores nationwide. プロント　イットジュース
http://www.pronto.co.jp/ittjuice/

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

CGC Hokkaido Milk

CGC is an alliance of smaller grocers for volume purchases and private brands. This CGC private brand milk advertises the milk as being from Hokkaido which is the most famous dairy area in Japan. Interestingly, the back of the package shows that the milk was processed by the Gunma Prefecture farm cooperative 群馬牛乳協業組合. Nothing wrong with that, but I thought their reason for existence was to process and promote local milk, whereas in this case the virtues of milk from Hokkaido are being touted. CGC牛乳 北海道産

Toyo Beverage Chilled Cup Coffees

Spotted these new chilled coffees from Toyo Beverage in a convenience store. Very attractive packaging, but lined up next to one another the explanation on the packaging can be a tad confusing. The Cafe au Lait on the left notes use of 100% open fire roasted arabica beans. The arabica beans are an Ethiopian mocha blend. In this case, "mocha" is used to refer to the bean variety.

On the right is a Cafe Mocha which uses Italian couverture chocolate. In this case, the "mocha" refers to coffee variety that includes chocolate and milk. The labeling is not a mistake, but it assumes a decent amount of knowledge on the part of the consumer, or else it assumes that most people just look at the illustrations.
トーヨービバレッジ　カフェオレ　カフェモカ　クーベルチュール・チョコレート　直火焙煎

Sapporo The Hokkaido Beer

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.

McDonalds Certain Victory Pineapple/Beef & Tomato/Chicken Burgers

 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.

Haagen-Dazs Green Tea Crumble

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.

Yamazaki Otaru Ankake Yakisoba Lunch Pack

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.

KFC Obon Barrel

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.

Japan Communist Party Anti-TPP Poster

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".

Wendy's Summer Specials

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.