Character Bento Boxes Are So Last Season!? What's the Next "Delicious" Trend?

Cookoo, a mysterious creature born from a famous chef's hat.
Cookoo, whose culinary skills are second to none and whose curiosity about food knows no bounds, interviews people at Dentsu Inc. who have "delicious jobs"!

Cookoo: Today, I came to meet Ms. Miyawaki, thanks to a tip from Mr. Oya at the "Food Lifestyle Lab" whom I met last time!

Miyawaki: Cookoo, thank you for coming all this way! Wasn't it tough?

Cookoo: Not at all! The Oedo Line was pretty empty!
I heard you're also part of the Food Lifestyle Lab with Mr. Oya, so I came all excited, hoping to hear more about delicious work!

Miyawaki: The Food Lifestyle Lab is a cross-departmental project within Dentsu Inc., but I'm participating from the Publishing Business Development Division.

Cookoo: Publishing Business Production Bureau?

Miyawaki: That's right. It's a department that connects publishers with companies wanting to advertise, focusing mainly on magazines. I handle all the magazines we call "lifestyle magazines" there, which gather information about food, home, and ways of living. Today, I brought some delicious-looking magazines for Cookoo, who came all this way!

Cookoo: Wow!! I'm so happy!! 'Lettuce Club', 'Orange Page', 'Thank You!', 'ESSE', 'Mart', 'saita', 'CHANTO'... There are so many magazines out there that are right up my alley!

Miyawaki: Seeing them all lined up like this, even when they cover the same cooking topics, each magazine presents them completely differently, right?

Cookoo: You're right. Some feature recipes, others highlight food events or suggest table settings. Even within cooking features, there's so much variety.

Miyawaki: Exactly! Even among lifestyle magazines, each one targets different reader ages, family structures, and food preferences. My job is to combine the magazine's unique personality with advertising to create compelling pages.

Cookoo: You know the flavor of all these magazines! How do you not get full?

Miyawaki: I'm a glutton, after all (laughs).

Cookoo: Just like me!

Miyawaki: (laughs). And you know, the editors-in-chief of these lifestyle magazines lined up here are all professional foodies too. They read the minds of housewives when it comes to food and create pages that offer helpful hints for daily life.

Cookoo: So delicious pages are made with the reader in mind. Just like delicious food is made with the eater in mind! Tell me more about that!

Miyawaki: Oh, I think I've got Cookoo's stomach hooked. For example, I spoke with the editor-in-chief of a magazine supporting moms raising kids. She said that nowadays, more people are choosing healthy bento boxes incorporating traditional Japanese cuisine over character bento boxes focused on looks. Adding things like hijiki seaweed or simmered dishes. There's a growing trend toward more subdued bento boxes, something unthinkable just a little while ago.

Cookoo: Huh! Really?! Are character bento boxes already outdated?

Miyawaki: Not exactly old. But among moms today, there's a growing desire to "live more thoughtfully." Japanese cuisine involves making dashi stock, letting flavors develop slowly, and delicate preparation, right? By making a "Japanese-style" bento, they feel like they're embracing that "thoughtful living."

Cookoo: Japanese cuisine does take time and effort, doesn't it?

Miyawaki: Here's the interesting part: as more Japanese-style side dishes are added, the bento contents tend to become earthy and subdued, right? So to add vibrancy, bento boxes in bold colors are becoming more popular.

Cookoo: Wow! So the trend spreads from food to tableware!

Miyawaki: Exactly! By capturing these little shifts in housewives' feelings and lifestyles, we can get ahead of the curve and create mechanisms to move the world. Magazines are really good at spotting these early signs of trends. Lately, it's not just about placing ads in magazines; there's also more work where we leverage the magazine's influence to help clients with product development.

Cookoo: That sounds so much fun!

Miyawaki: It is!

Cookoo: You seem so energized, Miyawaki-san! Your work sounds like it could really benefit everyday life too!

Miyawaki: You get it (laughs)? Actually, I've been hooked on making prepared side dishes I saw in a magazine recently.

Cookoo: Prepared side dishes?

Miyawaki: They're homemade side dishes you can make ahead. It's a big trend this year—every magazine has features on it, and recipe books are selling like crazy. I open the magazine to check the ads, but I always end up checking out the recipes that catch my eye.

Cookoo: So you like cooking too, Miyawaki!

Miyawaki: I'm no match for Cookoo, but getting married and pregnant sparked my interest in cooking! I was too busy to manage it before, but the very day I started maternity leave, I began attending cooking classes every day.

Cookoo: Huh! You went to cooking classes every day with that big belly? If you'd asked me, I could've taught you~!

Miyawaki: Ugh. I didn't realize...! At the time, I thought I had to make the most of the time I finally had. But I learned the basics there—bread, Japanese cuisine, Western cuisine.

Cookoo: What kind of dishes do you make often?

Miyawaki: My favorites are preserved foods! Miso, pickles, rakkyo, umeboshi, and fruit liqueurs.

Cookoo: You really love pickling, huh~.

Miyawaki: That's right (laughs). My husband's family always sends us lots of vegetables, so I've been experimenting to make sure we enjoy them all the way to the end, and that's how my repertoire grew! Plus, I really like things that take time and patience to make. It's fun watching the flavor change little by little.

Cookoo: I get it~. That fermentation process is irresistible, right? Do you make them with your son?

Miyawaki: Yeah. My son and I make miso together. Lately, we've been making salted lemons and salted koji to keep on hand.

Cookoo: Speaking of salted lemon, that's the Moroccan condiment where you salt-cure lemons with the peel on and let them ferment, right? I recently enjoyed some homemade salted lemon with grilled butterbur buds!

Miyawaki: You're amazing, Cookoo! When I talk about the dishes I've made with the editor-in-chief, it sparks new conversations and even ideas for future projects.

Cookoo: It's wonderful how your food-related work connects so seamlessly with your daily life, Miyawaki-san!

Miyawaki: That's right. My daily life experiences come alive in my work at Dentsu Inc.'s Food Lifestyle Lab and the Publishing Business Development Division. It also helps me capture the reality of homemaker magazines so well—I feel truly fortunate. Sometimes during work, I'll decide tonight's menu and feel like I've gained something extra.

Cookoo: Can we go out for dinner sometime?

Miyawaki: If Cookoo's the one cooking!

Cookoo:...I figured.