Japanese Tastes In Food Changing

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 3

Japanese Tastes In Food Changing

••The Press” Special Service OSAKA. A “tremendous thange” in the tastes of toung people in Japan—who are now keen on ice tream, milk, and cheese —is noted by Miss Taeko Nakamura, who has returned to Japan after more than four years in New Zealand.

Miss Nakamura is liaison Dfficer for the New Zealand Dairy Board's two shops at Expo 70, and considers that New Zealand dairy produce has a bright, long-term prospect in Japan. Though there are problems »ver the Japanese protecting their own producers, the demand will always be far greater than the supply, she says, “I fell in love with New Zealand,” she said in a recent interview. She speaks English With a “Kiwi” accent, and can

speak with some authority on both Japan and New Zealand. It all began when she met a New Zealander from Te Awamutu, Mr Gordon Parker, in 1962. Later, she went to the Waikato, where she stayed with the Parker family for 19 months. Farm Cadet

“I did everything,” she] said. “I drove the tractor, made hay, helped milk, saw [the artificial you-know-what. I I was a real Japanese farm cadet”

. After this, she worked at 'other jobs including an accountant’s office, Waikato university, and teaching Japanese in the adult education department of Victoria University, Wellington. For two years, Miss Nakamura worked for the Dairy Board in Wellington, much of lit in preparation for taking part in Expo.

“For the first few weeks in Osaka I was homesick for New Zealand,” she said. “I i telephoned several friends all ■ the way from Japan. | “You see, I am a country ■girl. I come from near Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, and found Expo was too much for me —I was swept along in the bustle.”

But it would take a good deal more than Japanese crowds to deter Miss Naka- [ mura. She says the Dairy Board's shops’ success has been tremendous—much grea- : ter than was originally expected. “Our stocks of cheese were

■ exhausted at the beginning of I April, and we had to get an extra five tons air-freighted from New Zealand,” she said. Miss Nakamura said Japanese people were discerning, and often asked whether the produce was actually made in New Zealand. “When they are hesitant I explain, for example, that smoked cheese is good to eat with beer,” she said. “If they have a taste, then they say how nice it is. Twenty-seven-year-old Taeko regards New Zealand as her adopted home. “You see,” she says, “I have been an independent working woman in New Zealand.”

She plans to return to New Zealand, and would like to stay.

“In Japan,” she said, “no matter where you go, you cannot get away from the crowds and the people.” The photograph shows Miss Nakamura tempting a customer with ice cream at the New Zealand Dairy Board’s International Bazaar shop at Expo 70.