A Scholar's research into traditional insect cuisine in Japan

Charlotte Payne, a 2009 Daiwa Scholar, worked in the Kobokan community centre in Sumida-ku, and also as a researcher on Yakushima island, in Kagoshima during the work placement part of the programme.

Leaving Japan at the end of the Scholarship in March 2011, Charlotte went on to work with an NGO in India, and with the Medical Research Council and Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford.

In March 2013 she returned to Japan as a (Japanese Government) MEXT (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) Scholar, to study the nutritional implications of entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, in rural communities. She originally became interested in insects as a potentially nutrient-rich source of protein that is cheaper and more environmentally sustainable than traditional livestock.

Affiliated to Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Charlotte is currently based in Gifu ken, in a small mountain village called Kushihara, where in addition to her studies, she is figuring out how to make ‘tsukemono’ and concentrating on growing herbs and vegetables, developing palatable and nutritious insect recipes, and maintaining an enormous Japanese country house in the heat of the summer.

You can read about Charlotte’s research and her life in Kushihara through her website and blog, which is in English and Japanese:

Charlotte Payne website