Pride of Our Town: Fukushima Pride Journey

From Cultivation and Harvest to Pressing
Carefully-crafted Premium Tamura no Egoma Oil
Fukushima is one of the premier growing regions in Japan for Egoma, which is called perilla in English and is a member of the mint family. Locals have affectionately referred to egoma as “Junen”, meaning “Ten Years”. It is a very unique and cherished crop, rich in healthy alpha-linolenic acid, and it is said that consuming it can add ten years to your life. Egoma thrives in cold, wet conditions and is widely cultivated in the Abukuma region of Fukushima.

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A Specialty Product from the Pioneering Region of Tamura City
Shuhei Murakami is a Tamura native who discovered the potential health benefits of perilla. In 1998, he imported an oil press from Korea, the home of the plant. Once a pressing technique was established, perilla cultivation took off in Tamura as numerous new growers joined the effort.
The farmers bring their crops to the pressing stations located around Tamura City to make oil for their families, a testament to how active perilla production is in the region.
In 2020, the Egoma Promotional Association of Tamura was established and began taking the lead in efforts to advance perilla activities in the city. The perilla is harvested by hand when fall rolls around, carefully dried, and sorted before being sold to the association, which then presses out the oil to create the final product.
Perilla comes in both white- and black-seed varieties, but it’s the black seeds that yield the highest oil content and are therefore used for pressing oil. The seeds are easily damaged, however, so they must always be harvested by hand.
Egoma oil from Tamura comes in two varieties. For the cold-pressed version made from dried seeds, it has a fresh aroma of Shiso leaves and a distinctively mild flavour. The other version uses roasted seeds, producing a rich, aromatic oil with a memorable sweetness. Both are exceptional products that are attractive and unique produced along with its own set of cultivation and oil-pressing standards of the Egoma Promotional Association of Tamura to maintain a high level of quality.
Kimie Nemoto, president of the association, growing perilla herself, has been heading up the organisation since it was founded. For her, the most significant event in the Association’s history was getting Geographical Indication (GI) Protection System designation for Tamura no Egoma Oil on 31 January, 2023.

“The producers in Tamura have been working together to grow perilla and press perilla oil for years”, she explained, “so to get our special regional brand nationally recognised was a great joy”. The seeds are harvested in November each year and placed in cold storage. They are only pressed once the orders come in, ensuring the highest level of quality and freshness for buyers. The result is a growing popularity across the prefecture and all of Japan.

Nemoto recommends drizzling the cold-pressed oil over yogurt or the tomato caprese salad to best enjoy its delicate flavour. She says it is also great in Natto, or fermented soybeans, miso soup, and pasta dishes. She also suggests making egoma toast by spreading the oil on bread, adding torn pieces of roasted seaweed, and a touch of soy sauce.
Nemoto has been taking perilla oil every day for over 25 years, her bubbling energy and ready smile are a memorable testament to the benefits of this wonderful product.

Geographical Indication (GI) Protection System

Geographical Indication (GI) Protection System is a national framework designed to protect the names and brands of products that possess qualities or social reputations nurtured by the unique natural, cultural, and social characteristics of a given region, as intellectual property.

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