Artisanal Cheesemaking Arrives in Japan

Image Source: Babcock Institute

The island nation is the resident seafood master of the world, but it seems that Japan is ready to move up in ranks in the cheese-producing world. Believe it or not, the Japan Dairy Council has been around since 1962, and this year it counted 170 artisanal cheesemaking studios throughout the country, a number that’s jumped in recent years. In October, the Japanese edition of the Wall Street Journal reported on the growing industry, noting that Signature, the Michelin-starred French restaurant in Tokyo’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, features a cheese platter comprising all Japanese-made cheeses. The generally small, family-run farms behind the movement have been experimenting with cow, sheep and goat milk; one young cheesemaker even traveled to Wisconsin this summer to complete an internship through the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cheeses of note include an award-winning blue from Sarabetsu Cheese Studio in Hokkaido, herb-scented cheeses wrapped in shiso leaves (a type of Japanese basil) and a Hokkaido-made semi-hard marinated in red miso. So if you’ve got a trip to Tokyo planned for next year, after a morning at the Tsukiji Fish Market, find yourself a platter of the latest in Japanese cheese artistry. —Eva Meszaros

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