Variety Friday: Japanese Easter

Images from Fujiya's web site except where noted

I think many Japanese people have an inkling about the roots of Christmas. Though they don't really think much about it, I believe many know it's related to Christian beliefs and may even have been taught in high school that it relates to celebrating the birth of Jesus. Some of my students told me that they were given the basic details some time back when they were kids, but I doubt anyone ever gave them the inside scoop on Easter.

"Colorful Egg Tart". It's not an egg tart, but a tart with a couple of confectionary eggs. 

The concept of Easter is based on a bit more mysticism than Christmas. It's all well and good to talk about babies being born. It's another to speak of the brutality of being crucified and being resurrected. It's not exactly the stuff of the "happy fun life" that you see in Japan. They've got their own mysticism and beliefs already. They don't need more.

A bunny cake with strawberry ears, obviously.

That being said, they can always use more commercial opportunities. Christmas has been folded in so nicely that they have their own traditions for it. Halloween has been gaining a foothold over the past couple of decades and they are closing in on having their own ways of celebrating it. I'm guessing that it ultimately will end up as a situation where children get treats from participating businesses. That's what was happening in my neighborhood when I left Japan. 

Peko "sweet egg" with some pretty pedestrian treats (hard candy, lollipops, chocolate). 

Easter is a whole, fresh, wide world of opportunity, and it's quite a doozy. The pastel colors, the happy Easter bunny, cute chicks, and sweets of all sorts. There's not much to dislike about Easter, except for that pesky serious stuff that actually underlies the whole deal, but that can be swept under the rug. It's not like much of the West isn't doing that as well.

 

Mont blanc, which is cake with a cream filling and chestnut cream on top.

As someone who has been paying attention to food and food marketing in Japan for quite awhile, and who has seen a lot of change over the 23 years I spent in Japan, it's interesting to take note of which companies are latching onto the potential of Easter and which ones are ignoring it. Chocolate makers like Meiji and Morinaga don't appear to be doing much at all to capitalize on the holiday. Confectioners and those who sell freshly made sweets are embracing it. 

Easter Variety Box, ice cream on the half "shell"

Besides Fujiya, Baskin Robbins Japan has been selling special Easter ice cream products for the last several years. In 2012, they were selling plastic eggs full of ice cream. In addition to bringing those back, they're also selling the "sundaes" pictured below and a fruit drink which has little to do with Easter, but is a seasonal offering nonetheless. 

Image from Baskin Robbins Japan. 

I wonder if Easter may not have caught on in Japan because it coincides with spring celebrations. It's not like the Japanese don't have plenty of good times on their own with the changing of the season with cherry blossom viewing and all. They even have their own flavors and foods associated with the season. Frankly, some part of me is a little sad to see the crassness of the holiday make its way into Japan. I'm in no way a cultural purist, but I do know that, despite all of the designer bags and conspicuous consumption there, it's not nearly as consumerist as it could potentially be when it comes to holidays. These sort of imported holidays seem like heading down a path toward a much higher level of such types of celebrations, and I don't really see that as a good thing. 

Variety Friday: Artificial Sweeteners in Japan

This post is the kick-off to a week of health and diet snack and food reviews. Next week, I hope to explore the market for foods that are designed for people who are weight and health conscious by reviewing some of the foods directly marketed at such folks. As I've remarked before, the market is not as broad as those in Western countries, but there are some interesting tidbits.

"Slim Up Sugar" and "Calorie Zero". Slim Up has a little over 6 calories per packet at a cost of 5.2 yen (6 cents) per packet. Calorie Zero at zero calories costs 11.3 yen (12 cents) per packet for that benefit. I don't know why a child is on the "Calorie Zero".

Around the New Year's holidays, I read an article about celebrations around the world for that time of year. For Japan, it said that Japanese people hang paper strips outside of their homes at this time of year to bring luck and ward off evil. While this is true in a sense, it's absolutely misleading. It's akin to asserting that Western folks around the world erect a Christmas tree as a pagan ritual at this time of year. The history is accurately reflected, but not the present situation or the thoughts behind it.

This situation comes to mind because I think that history factors into a commonly held notion that Japanese people don't use or like additives or artificial ingredients in their foods. In fact, many Japanese folks who I talk to about this will say that they refuse to use artificial ingredients, but they'll buy processed foods that include them without batting an eye. I think there was once a time when it was true that chemical additives were anathema, but it is not clearly reflected in current food culture.

Because of the myth that chemicals are not something Japanese consumers are so sanguine about, I've been repeatedly surprised by the inclusion of artificial sweeteners in many of the snacks I review. Sucralose in particular is a part of both salted (Japanese Cheetos, some sembei, etc.) and sweet foods (Pocky and its doppelgangers in particular).

The strange thing is that, while Sucralose is everywhere in the ingredients lists on various snacks, you can't buy it as a consumer level product. The only way to get your hands on Splenda is to buy it as an import. If you use artificial sweeteners in your coffee or tea, I strongly recommend that you tap the Foreign Buyer's Club for Splenda (for Sucralose) or Equal (for Aspartame). There are a variety of reasons for this which I shall soon get to.

"Pal Sweet", an aspartame-based sweetener at 1.7 calories per packet. The price varies between 6.3 yen (7 cents) and 8.7 yen (10 cents) per packet.

First of all, most of the artificial sweeteners in Japan are not zero calorie. You can buy a variety which cuts the calories by certain fractions.The most popular, "Pal Sweet", cuts calories by 90%. If you want something with zero calories, you pay quite a bit more (see the picture and caption at the top of this post). Imported Splenda or Equal, on the other hand, is always zero calories and costs less than Japanese sweeteners.

A cost-efficient case of Splenda from the Foreign Buyer's Club. The cost is 2.8 yen (3 cents) per packet and it's zero calorie. This one was even better value because it has 200 bonus packets (which I didn't factor into my cost per packet here).

Cost is the primary reason to buy the imported sweeteners. At the FBC, a box of 1000 packets of Splenda costs you 2,801 yen ($31) and a box with 800 packets of Equal is 2,080 yen ($23). I realize that's a lot of sweetener, but one can find other foreigners to split the amount with. Also, if you use 3 packets a day, that's "only" a year's supply. In my household, that's pretty much what my husband and I consume combined in our coffee for breakfast. If you compare this to Pal Sweet packets, which can be had most cheaply at Seiyu for about 380 yen ($4.21) per 60-packet bag, that is 6,333 yen for 1000 packets. Note that you can't buy Pal just anywhere for this low price. Typically, I see it for 520 yen per 60-count package at other markets.

There are other factors to consider as well and one is that, while all of the sweeteners I've mentioned claim to be as sweet as 2 teaspoons of sugar, Splenda is significantly more potent than Pal. If you use 2 packets of Pal to take the bitter edge off of your coffee, you'll only need 1 of Splenda. I'm not sure how sweetness is being measured by the respective manufacturers, but clearly something is different. If you consider that you need to use half as much Splenda as Japanese sweeteners, the cost savings become even greater.

When I first arrived in Japan, there were virtually no artificial sweeteners of any kind on the shelves. Pal, which is made with aspartame, was the first I noticed after a few years. There also was Stevia available at one time, but I rarely see it these days. Most of them are made with Acesulfame K, Aspartame, and occasionally Erythritol or Maltitol, which can have a profound gastrointestinal effect. Note that one of the other differences between foreign sweetener and Japanese ones is that the Japanese ones tend to be rather coarse and large-grained. Western-made ones are very powdery and fine. They have less bulk, but pack a bigger sweetness punch.

I will grant that artificial sweeteners are not good for your health. My discussing this topic isn't meant to make any claims about whether or not one should consume them, but simply to offer information about what is available in Japan for those who do.

If you'd like to see the diet and health products (or snacks that are healthier than usual treats) that have already been reviewed, you can see them here and here. Next week, I've got 5 new diet and/or health food items lined up for review.