Although Japan's economic development had begun well before the "westernisation" introduced during the Meiji reign, their cheese industry remained held up by cultural influences. Yet the history of cheese there goes back ages as products derived from milk are mentioned as far back as the 7th century AD – particularly So, which was said to be imported from China and presented to the Emperor. This legendary cheese, which a farm in Nara Ken is now beginning to produce under the name of So of Aska, was produced by reducing milk to a concentration of 10%, a different process from that practised in Europe, but close to Mongol cheeses.
In the Heian Gidai era (the beginning of the Middle Ages) cheese was considered as a luxury product, a food that fortified and gave you a long life, very much appreciated by the nobility.
In the 18th century, Dutch traders brought Gouda cheese to the shoguns through the port; of Nagasaki, a privilege only they could enjoy, because Japan was closed to the outside world at this time. Despite the westernisation introduced during the Meiji era, as from 1868, the cheese industry there made slow progress, as Japanese culture looked down upon the regular planned slaughter of milk producing livestock, necessary in the rational management of their herds. It's only hardly in the last half century that things have built up more and more quickly, in tune with increased consumption, at first with melted cheeses and more and more now with soft cheeses.
At the present time there are 68 producers, 46 dairy and 22 farmhouse (12 farmhouse compared with 33 dairy in the island of Hokkaido), 6 cf. 28 in Honshu and 4 cf. 7 in Shikoku and Kyushu.
Cheese production in Japan has thus been recent – but spectacular, having represented only 9,500 tonnes in 1975 compared with 129,000 in 2003. For the most part it's all been about adapting Western cheeses, but making them more and more by using the traditional methods of their countries of origin, yet regularly trying out original creations and copies.
Today in Japan, they produce Camemberts in ultra modern factories, as well as melted cheese and fresh cheesess. Japan remains a very big importer of cheese, accounting for 120,000 tonnes per year - principally from Australia and New Zealand (75% of tonnage) - of a type of Cheddar. France only imports specialities, representing just 3% of Japanese imports by volume. On the other hand, French cheese is highly appreciated by an elite, who sometimes spend a fortune giving presents of cheeses or serving them during a Western-style meal.
This immediately brings to mind for me those Japanese mountain cheeses that I sampled when I was a member of the Caseus Montanus jury - and those Japanese producers in Munster with their washed rind soft cheeses...
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