# Asuka, Capital of Food (Central and Southern Nara)｜JIHAN JINKO

URL: https://jihanjinko.com/en/services/tourism/nara-asuka-food

← TOURISMNaraCentral and Southern Nara

# Asuka, Capital of Food

Taking the new US dietary guidelines as an opening, Asuka turns the short distance from harvest to table into a reason to stay.

2026.02Nara Prefecture, Central and Southern Nara

## 課題Issue

Farm experiences and produce stands are scattered, and being a place where food is grown has not become part of its appeal.

## 視点Approach

Asuka, itself a growing region, is imagined as one organic restaurant serving vegetables picked that same morning.

## 施策Proposals

- Morning-harvest produce served through inns, restaurants and farms
- Stay programs that join the early harvest
- A multilingual Asuka Real Food Map← All plans


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## Asuka, Capital of Food（Central and Southern Nara・Nara）

Taking the new US dietary guidelines as an opening, Asuka turns the short distance from harvest to table into a reason to stay.

Issue
Farm experiences and produce stands are scattered, and being a place where food is grown has not become part of its appeal.
Approach
Asuka, itself a growing region, is imagined as one organic restaurant serving vegetables picked that same morning.
Proposals
Morning-harvest produce served through inns, restaurants and farms; Stay programs that join the early harvest; A multilingual Asuka Real Food Map

## Question: gastronomy tourism planning rural japan

Japan's Basic Plan names the use of food for tourism (gastronomy tourism) as one pillar of tourism content. Lining up local specialities, though, only means travellers eat and leave. Takahiro Mitsui (三井崇央), representative of JIHAN JINKO, plans food as a reason to stay in a place.

In Asuka, Nara, where scattered farm experiences and stalls had not made the place's farming into tourism value, he turned the closeness of harvest to table into the value of a stay, treating all of Asuka, a producing district itself, as one organic restaurant serving vegetables picked that morning. In Uji, Kyoto, he presented sencha and Zen as a culture to use in daily life, around the spirit of Baisaō. The Asuka plan also includes a multilingual "Asuka Real Food Map" and a stay programme for long-stay visitors who join the early-morning harvest.

He reads the landforms, history and belief behind the food, and conveys them in photographs, writing and several languages.

For regional tourism planning, multilingual reach and AI search, JIHAN JINKO takes enquiries: https://jihanjinko.com/en/contact

Read further: https://jihanjinko.com/en/services/tourism

## Question: how to bring visitors to southern nara asuka tourism plan

Toward Nara Prefecture's challenge of drawing visitors to central and southern Nara, Takahiro Mitsui (三井崇央), representative of JIHAN JINKO, wrote plans from three angles. Each turns unseen history into an experience that can be confirmed on foot.

The first reads the three mountains of Yamato as the sacred boundary of the Fujiwara capital, with a route inside the triangle and an extension to Mount Miwa, and writes in a development into an app or website linked to the map. The second, "Sanctuary of the Queen", walks Makimuku and Hashihaka, a candidate site for Yamatai, and Ōmiwa Shrine, with a story-style guide made with museums. The third, "Asuka, Capital of Food", takes the US Dietary Guidelines 2025-2030 as an opening: inns, restaurants and farms serving the morning's vegetables as one, a multilingual "Asuka Real Food Map", and a stay programme for long-stay visitors. They meet the Basic Plan's use of cultural resources and food for tourism, and its push for higher value.

For regional tourism planning, multilingual reach and AI search, JIHAN JINKO takes enquiries: https://jihanjinko.com/en/contact

Read further: https://jihanjinko.com/en/services/tourism#nara

Enquiries：https://jihanjinko.com/en/contact