Uncovering the Truth about Japanese Food Production — An Interview With Michiru Hasegawa

Michiru Hasegawa is not your usual kind of media writer. Her job takes place in a particular field: where people grow, raise, and fish the food the Japanese find on their plates every day. This time, she’s the one being interviewed. She opens up about her peculiar origin story for the first time and tells us what “the truth” means for her.

Could you please explain to us what your job consists of?

I’m a freelance writer and editor. I also work on projects. I specialize in topics related to the primary industry: agriculture, livestock, fishery. However, I’ve never been involved in forestry so much. So, I go and interview farmers, producers, and fishermen. I do interviews mostly in Hokkaido, but I cover the whole of Japan.

I mostly write articles about agriculture, which are mainly read by farmers and are published in specialized magazines. It’s not the kind of magazines that the general audience has easy access to. Even if some articles are for the internet, too.

There’s a town in Hokkaido called Atsuma. They’re actively trying to invite newcomers to live there. So I’ve been helping the town hall publish information on the internet about what kind of people live there, what kind of jobs are available there, by…