Lunch ON! - Season 12 / Year 2023

We go to a town in Niigata Prefecture to visit a craft beer brewery that was established as part of a project to revitalize the local economy. The owner of the brewery works together with her only employee to do everything from brewing, packaging, delivering, to selling their excellent beers. They are particularly busy when they begin preparing a new batch, so to save time, the owner brings a hearty lunch that she's cooked up for herself and her employee. Tune in and join the yummy fun!

Mr. Sengoku is the chief editor of a vegetable gardening magazine, but he does much more than just edit articles at his desk; he actually goes to the field to conduct some of the farming experiments he writes about. Although he was not at all into vegetable farming when he started, he soon came to love it so much that he sold his apartment in Tokyo to move to the countryside where he can farm more. His wife prepares delicious bento for him every day using the vegetables he grows!

This episode is dedicated to highlighting the delicious lunches found in Niigata Prefecture. First, we meet a farming family that grows exquisite soybeans and delicious rice. We then head to the factory of an internationally-acclaimed manufacturer of cutting tools, whose employee cafeteria serves exceptionally delicious lunches for free to its crafters and staff every day. We finish off with a story about a young man training to become a crafter of blades for hand planes.

Kagawa Prefecture is famous for udon noodles! We visit Mr. Onishi, who crafts exceptional rolling pins used to make udon. As it is a cherished tradition in this region for people to make their own udon at home, the demand for these rolling pins, which ensure perfectly formed dough, has been steadily increasing. Renowned for their straightness, Mr. Onishi's rolling pins have become highly sought-after, with sales managed by his wife, Misako. And for lunch, the two have a wonderful udon meal!

Mr. Torii lost his eyesight at the age of two, but he didn't let that hold him back. He currently works for a pharmaceutical company, primarily from the comfort of his own home, where he also prepares his own lunches. He started cooking in middle school but was constantly faced with numerous challenges, such as burns and other mishaps. Nevertheless, he's developed a unique cooking style by relying on his sense of touch, keeping his ingredients and utensils within easy reach, and measuring seasonings with his hands. Today, Mr. Torii's cooking serves as a refresher during his work breaks.

In Koga City, Fukuoka Prefecture, lies Japan's number one company in the glow stick industry. The founder and current president, Mr. Harada Shiro, is still actively involved in product development at the age of 78. Glow sticks are a must-have for pop idol concerts in Japan, and they also produce light-up bobbers for night fishing. Their headquarters boasts a pizza oven in the garden, where the employees enjoy a special lunchtime treat featuring the president and staff's signature dishes under the blue sky.

For our Miyazaki Prefecture Special, we meet Mr. Komura Wataru, the second-generation president of a plant company that cultivates and sells around 30 types of palm trees and other tropical plants. Join us as photographer Abe Satoru reports on the lunch enjoyed by the company's gardening pros. We also head to a shochu liquor manufacturer that has been operating for over 130 years. The company produces shochu's raw ingredients such as barley, rice, and sweet potatoes through organic farming. Tune in to find out what the shochu artisans do for lunch!

Mr. Asakawa, who works as a curator at a museum in Iwate Prefecture, restores the items of his museum that were damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. When we take a peek at his bento lunch, we find out that the food inside was sent to him from his grandmother and mother in Tokyo! It turns out they send him a box full of home-cooked dishes once or twice a month. But the food care package is not only about the food; it's also a means of communication and connection with his distant family.

This episode is dedicated to bringing you stories from our correspondents all over the world! We hear from a production coordinator/videographer in Mexico who cooks Japanese cuisine with local ingredients. And then, we check out the Lebanese lunch enjoyed by a doctor from Osaka Prefecture who is spending two months inside a refugee camp in Lebanon to provide medical training to other doctors. We also check out stories from Los Angeles and the Italian city of Brescia. Don't miss it!

Awaji Island is known for ornamental roof tiles called "onigawara." The artisans who make these tiles are known as "onishi." Okitsu Naoko is an apprentice of the craft who trains daily to become a full-fledged artisan. She and her husband, the onigawara workshop's president, eat udon noodles for lunch virtually every day. The quick and easy lunch allows for Naoko to spend her time honing her skills. We also visit a forestry academy to see what the trainees eat for lunch outside in the snow.

Muay Thai is recently gaining popularity in Japan not just as a martial art, but also as a method of exercise. We visit a Muay Thai gym in the city of Nagoya where all the personal trainers are professional fighters. Whenever a fight nears, they have to go through the grueling process of cutting weight, but luckily, they have delicious, yet healthy low-fat-low-carb staff lunch every day that makes it all a little easier.

On March 18, 2023, a new train route started between the Sotetsu Line, which provides its service around Yokohama City, and the Tokyu Line. We'll take a look at how the drivers train and how their dedication to safety is rewarded with some hearty lunches at the company cafeteria. We also visit a manufacturing company in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, a location famous for its lacquerware. They leverage the latest technology to create one-of-a-kind plates used in conveyor belt sushi restaurants.

This episode focuses on the work of the Inspection Institute of Weights and Measures. Did you know that there are professionals who inspect the precision of devices such as taxi meters, gas pumps and scales found in schools and supermarkets? Accurate measurements are crucial in our daily lives, and these civil servants make sure that everything is in order. Come see the lunches that the inspectors enjoy during their busy schedule.

This episode features a college professor who loves pork cutlet curry so much that he made a database of every version of the dish he ate around the city, numerically detailing the taste, color, spiciness, amount of rice, etc., of each one. He also keeps an image database of each bento lunch he makes for himself, and through analysis, has established the ideal format in terms of how much room is afforded to what type of dish in the box. Let's get scientific about lunch!

Come and meet an 18-year-old rookie carpenter who just started training at a construction company that specializes in shrines and temples. He lives in the company dorm, and as part of his training, he must cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for eight people in under 30 minutes. This is an especially important task as it teaches the workers how to plan out their work. We take an in-depth look at a young man's carpentry training and lunch.

Japan's oldest general weekly magazine ended publication in 2023. Every week, for roughly a century, the Shukan Asahi kept going strong, even when print media had turned into a thing of the past. What do the people at the editorial team get for lunch as the end draws near? To find out, we follow the lunch stories of three people of different generations: a 27-year-old journalist, a veteran designer in his 60s, and the editor-in-chief who is also a mother of three.

The Yasuda family all live apart from one another across the globe. The father is a director of a clinic in Miyagi Prefecture, the mother is working as a Japanese language teaching assistant in Vietnam, the eldest daughter works for the UN in Uganda, the younger daughter lives in Osaka working as a pediatrician, and the son lives in Hokkaido working as a general practitioner. But they all share what they had for lunch every day in the family's group chat!

We visit a small fish taxidermy workshop in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture. The workshop receives requests from aquariums, museums, and fishermen for display and commemorative purposes. The workshop is run by Mr. Ogawa, who skins the fish and colors them himself. Mr. Ogawa is always in a hurry to finish his lunch so he can devote his time to his latest creation! In another segment, we check out the lunch of Ms. Makino, a viola player in the BBC Philharmonic.

In this special episode, we present a heartwarming drama of how a factory worker fell in love with a woman working at the company cafeteria and how the two eventually got married!

Our story is about a woman who has two very different jobs at two very different locations, with two very different lunches! Tune in to find out more!