Online seminar “Gastronomy Tour in Senshu, Osaka: from a Sustainable Point of View”

This online seminar was held on January20, 2023, with the topic of food culture tourism and sustainable town development, sponsored by the OCTB, ANA Akinto., Ltd., and Jiji Press Co., Ltd.

This year, as the second phase, we invited representative producers from the Kawachi area in Minami-Osaka to participate in the "Food and Community Development that Will Last 100 Years" seminar, which provided an opportunity for representatives from industry, government, and academia to make proposals regarding the implementation of "Tourism x Food x SDGs".

Food is positioned as a comprehensive strategic industry for the region, and we would like to revive the “Food Showcase Osaka” using the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai as an opportunity. TO this end, important topics include formulating a strategy to attract upper class visitors, communicating the value of Osaka's food to the world, developing food-related human resources, and establishing a food culture that makes use of locally grown ingredients. It can be said that local people cultivating food culture and reducing food loss locally is comparable to the mottainai spirit.
In addition, food creates further added value by multiplying it with “history”, “tradition”, “culture”, “entertainment”, and so on.
When thinking about sustainability, which is part of the theme of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, from the perspective of “food sustainability”, we believe that the important elements are connections between people and hospitality.

Hiroshi Mizohata
President of the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau
In 2010, he became the Director of the Japan Tourism Agency. After serving as a Cabinet Secretariate advisor, he became the president of the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau in 2015. As a control tower for the promotion of Osaka tourism, he serves as a member of the Osaka Prefecture City Attractiveness Strategy Promotion Council and as the chairperson of the Osaka Prefecture/Osaka City IR Promotion Council.

② Enhancing Osaka's food and tourism ~wine × sustainable town development~
Katashimo Wine food Co., Ltd. Representative Director Toshihiro Takai
Kashiwara City, where the vineyard is located, is also experiencing an accelerating population decline.
It has been 130 years since we purchased an abandoned field and started growing grapes. If the original scenery of this vineyard remains for another 100 years, it will become a World Heritage Site and it will become a viable tourism business even without growing grapes. I predict that it will be. It is important to create the Only One for regional development. At Katashimo Winery, we strive every day to create wines that can be only found here, and wines that can only be tasted here if you come here, rather than copying what's being made overseas. In addition, there are traditional Japanese houses in the city that were built 130 years ago, when we bought them and worked to maintain them to preserve the local scenery, they attracted the attention of foreign visitors, and the number of inbound visits increased rapidly. The townscape cannot be maintained without some effort, and they are protected by residents who care about their hometown. Furthermore, history goes well with wine, and wine fans from all over the world come to buy wine grown from grape seeds that were brought to Osaka from Georgia in Europe long ago.

Toshihiro Takai
Representative Director of Katashimo Wine Food Co., Ltd.
Representative Director and President of Katashimo Winery (Kashiwara City, Osaka Prefecture), the oldest existing brewery in western Japan. He is the chairman of the Kansai Winery Association and the West Japan Winery Association. Due to a lack of successors, he runs an abandoned vineyard with volunteers. He is also enthusiastic about revitalizing the town, holding tours of historic townscapes such as old traditional Japanese houses that are over 100 years old, and wineries.

＜Part 2＞Panel discussion
With Professor Kobayashi, a professor at Osaka Public University, as the moderator, a three-person panel discussion with President Takai and President Mizohata, was held on how to create a sustainable region based on food.

Gastronomy tourism and community development
President Takai proposed the importance of food (wine) and community development from the perspective of Chairman Mizohata. In order for a region to survive, it is important that residents take pride in their region and love their town, which means fostering civic pride. President Takai continues to examine the history of his town and strives to preserve the good things. Furthermore, he is trying to create a system to monetize the combination of food, tourism, and history. The example of Europe leaves behind something truly positive, which is the basis of the spirit of the SDGs and is in line with what President Takai is aiming for. When thinking about the future SDGs for food, President Takai's efforts are themselves a top runner for the SDGs for food, and can be said to be a model case.

Create co-creation together
Nothing can be sustained unless sustainability is accompanied by economic activity. However, in reality, things often don't go as planned, so we asked President Takai what efforts are being made to ensure sustainability. The most important thing about a local industry is that its products are treasures of the region. I believe that this resonates with citizens' pride and that creating something unique in the world through agriculture is a condition for survival. It is important to borrow the power of consumers and work together to create common goals such as the local environment and food culture. I believe that my idea of ​​manufacturing is to empathize with others and have fun together. One example of this is leaving part of the abandoned fields to volunteers. Approximately 460 individual volunteers come one after another to help with cultivation. The convenience of being close to Osaka city helps make it easier to participate, but I think another factor is that volunteers see the benefits of participating.

Think Global
We asked President Mizohata about the meaning, value, and necessity of thinking about issues in Japan's regions from a global perspective. Overseas countries such as Europe consider their country's position in the global global market. There are two points for Japan to enter the global market. The first is to improve the production capabilities of the government. I hope that the government will play a role in forming and producing managers like President Takai and stakeholders of various genres. Second, even in the global market, Osaka has been well-established as a very interesting and attractive city. In order to become a city of choice after the COVID-19 period, when visitors to Japan re-entered, we need to increase the value of lodging and food, which are at the top of the spending list. This will enrich the local economy, create local Osaka in particular has great opportunities compared to other cities. At the time of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, it is important to firmly convey the appeal of Japan and the region, with the spirit of leading not only Osaka but all of Japan. We need to spread leaders like President Takai to each region and create products that are appealing to each region. I feel that this is our challenge until 2025.

Finally, each of the three participants wrote their recommendations for the future on a flip.

Through this seminar, we hope that we will be able to reaffirm the importance of creating something unique to a region, and of developing a sustainable region through co-creation and empathy with local residents.

Tetsu Kobayashi
Professor, Osaka Public University
Ph.D. (Commerce). His main research areas are brand strategy and distribution systems. Lately, he is interested and researching not only corporate branding, but also fresh food branding and regional branding. As part of activities related to regional branding, he has served as chairman of the Osaka Brand Committee's Food Panel (2005), secretary of the Kyoto-Osaka Food Promotion Council, and chairman of the Osaka Masterpiece Certification Review Council (2010-).

Please watch the video below to see the full session, including the session with the three participants.