Strawberries make for a colorful display at supermarkets and produce shops during the season in Japan, enticing customers with their multiple fragrant varieties. It is no wonder, as, according to the agriculture ministry, the country has some 300 varieties of strawberries, with some experts claiming that more than half of the world's breeds have their roots in Japan.
Strawberry harvests and the acreage used for growing the fruit have been declining steadily due to aging growers and a lack of successors. Despite this, there is a growing rivalry between producers looking to improve their own crops, leading to an explosion of new varieties as they seek to gain an edge in national markets.
Some have dubbed the current situation one of "Warring Strawberry States," a humorous comparison to the Sengoku ("Warring States") period, a time in Japanese history characterized by civil wars and social unrest in the 15th and 16th centuries.
"This is very juicy, and when you put it in your mouth, the juice just drips out," boasted Shinichiro Matsuda, a senior official at the Shiga Prefectural Agricultural Technology Promotion Center, as he described the textures of the "Mioshizuku" strawberry, the first original breed of the fruit to be harvested in the western prefecture near Kyoto, which took five years to develop.
Read more at japantoday.com