A need for health self-management has been discussed ever since Japan became a super-aging society, and now it shall be further discussed in response to the critical situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an aging society, many people suffer from lifestyle-related medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, that are often chronic and require long-term medication. Since a patient’s condition with chronic disease is not likely to change drastically within a short period of time, such chronic disease situations are appropriate targets for health self-management. Conceptually, presymptomatic disease is the condition of a person’s health ranging from very good health to a gradual degradation of health. Health self-management of such presymptomatic disease can include not only medication but also eating habits and food selection. Various scientific studies and empirical experiences with foods may encourage adoption of health self-management. This special edition consists of 5 articles written by different experts, and each has a unique perspective to present. Readers should feel free to start reading any of them. I hope this special edition can alert readers to some thoughts on eating carefully.

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No one would deny that food is the source of life. The purpose of self-care in diet is the prevention of disease and improvement of prognosis through careful consideration of digestion, nutrition, and health function of food. In this paper, I would like to unravel a part of the history of dietary self-care in Oriental medicine and especially the Japanese theory of food health care. People tend to think only about taking so-called health foods. But before that, they need to avoid bad habits about diet, especially their preference for strong flavors and not chewing well. By avoiding bad habits, they will be able to enjoy lighter flavors and stimulate their entire digestive system to absorb and utilize the nutrients and ingredients in food to the fullest. This is the essence of self-care in dieting.

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Japan's history spans more than 2,000 years from the Yayoi period to the pre-war period alone during which time Japanese survived on insufficient food to satisfy their hunger and to maintain growth and health. In the post-war period, Japanese people were able to procure enough food, and their thoughts changed from satietyoriented to health-oriented thinking, including: (1) supplementing nutrients that are lacking, (2) reducing nutrients that are in excess, (3) avoiding unhealthy habits, and (4) not using unnecessary chemicals in food. At the same time, with the improvement of analytical technology for ingredients and effects, a new concept of health food was born, using useful (functional) ingredients contained in general food. All health foods will continue to diversify as they adapt to society. I hope that Japanese health foods will continue to be useful globally and contribute to peace.

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Regulations for health foods are related to the Food Sanitation Act and the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Act. As a starting point, raw materials such as ingredients present in health foods that humans ingest orally need to be assessed as pharmaceuticals or nonpharmaceuticals. After the assessment, they are listed as raw materials exclusively used as pharmaceuticals or non-pharmaceuticals. In April 2015, a Foods with Functional Claims (FFCs) system, based on advance notifications from manufacturers, was launched as a new category of health food. Before the submission of FFCs, it is necessary to confirm that they are not exclusively used as pharmaceuticals. Recently, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) amended the Enforcement Regulation of the Food Sanitation Act for obligatory reporting of health damage incidents caused by the intake of food containing designated ingredients that call for special attention (designated ingredients, etc.). In June 2020, Forskohlii (Coleus forskohlii (Willd.) Briq.), Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus L. var. asiaticum (H.Hara) Ohwi), White Kwao Keur (Pueraria candollei Wall. ex Benth var. mirifica (Airy Shawand Suvat.) Niyomdham) and Black cohosh (Actaea racemose L.) were stipulated as designated ingredients by MHLW. Additionally, controlled ingredients were set to be verified that their designated ingredients, contained in raw materials, products, and partly finished products, conformed to standards appropriate for manufacturing and quality control. The current status of regulations that relate to health food, that is, the borderline of pharmaceuticals to non-pharmaceuticals, FFCs, and designated ingredients are described in this report using actual cases.

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Medicinal foods are used as resources of traditional, alternative, and/or complementary medicines and are known to have not only nutritive and taste values but also medicinal effects. Among them, we focused on exploring bio-functional molecules from plant resources with edible flower parts for the prevention and treatment of the early stages of lifestyle-related diseases. Here, we review our studies on evaluation of these biofunctional molecules obtained from the edible flower parts of chrysanthemum, everlasting, tea, and daisy, based on pharmaceutical food science.

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Ginseng is recorded in the first monograph on traditional Chinese medicine (Japanese name : Shinno-honzo-kyo) as a life-saving medicine and had been very popular as a panacea from ancient times. The original ginseng plant was grown in the Korean peninsula and in the northeastern part of China. Owing to depletion of the wild plants and increased demand for its use as a drug, health product, and cosmetic, attempts had been made to cultivate this plant. In this article, the histories of cultivation of the ginseng plant in the continental China, the Korean peninsula and Japan are described. Moreover, recent events of the use and supply of this crude drug in Japan, and the course of discovery of American ginseng in Canada are also mentioned.

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The increase in quality and productivity from crop cultivation has been offset by the narrowing of the crop genetic base (domestication syndrome) which has led to greater susceptibility to environmental stress. However, complete genome information for major crop species facilitates another approach to the breeding strategy for crop breeding. The approach of metabolomics-assisted breeding is a systematic strategy for introducing high quality traits on the basis of information on natural variance and metabolic polymorphisms. In order to perform this strategy, we need to understand not only metabolites displaying natural variation but also their underlying biosynthetic pathways to find the key genes for the production of target metabolites. Plant specialized (secondary) metabolites, widely diversified in their chemical structure, developed during the long evolutionary period of plant adaptation to environmental niches with gene duplication and convergent evolution of some key enzymatic genes. Recent technical developments allow for affordable whole genome sequencing as well as omics studies. Availability of several resources such as knockout mutant libraries, QTL lines and wild accessions, has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of approaches for functional genomics, including metabolic phenotype screening, network analysis, mQTL and GWAS studies. We integrated these approaches with metabolomic analysis to refine the biosynthetic structures of phenolic secondary metabolism including natural variance and tissue and species specificity. Tomato represents an important, readily available model crop and its diploid nature renders genetics relatively easy. A mass spectrometry (MS) based global metabolite profiling and microarray analysis were combined to allow comparisons between the relative metabolic levels of leaves and fruits of S. lycopersicum and seven wild tomato species. Based on the results from metabolite profiling, we performed pathway-reconstruction for finding novel genes involved in tomato secondary metabolism by integration analysis with transcriptome data. Our metabolomics-assisted functional genomics approach, which has resulted in discovery of key genes involved in chemical diversity in model plant and tomato species, is described.

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Tofukuji, located in Kyoto’s Higashiyama Ward, is the main temple of the Tofukuji School of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. It was founded by the Kokushi (most reverend priest) Shoichi, the first priest to gain Kokushi status in Japan. On October 16 and 17, Tofukuji holds its Kaisanki (a memorial service held on the anniversary of the Kokushi Shoichi’s death), a ceremony that includes the Hojo Saien as its final ritual. This ritual is a Yotsugashira ceremony in which a total of 24 guests— four guests of honor each accompanied by five other guests—share with the founder of the temple a meal followed by tea. This ritual is said to carry on ancient dining practices. While the Hojo Saien ritual has been discontinued at different times over the temple’s history, it was restored during the closing years of the Meiji Period (1868–1912), patterned after the example of Kenninji. The meal used in the Hojo Saien also was restored at that time, but it is said to have been prepared following a secret menu written down 700 years earlier, known as a 700-year-old recipe. This paper describes the content of this meal and considers its use of Japanese chestnut and ginger.

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At present there are many kinds of Wagasi (traditional Japanese confections) such as Manju (sweet bun), Mochi (rice cake), Youkan (sweet bean jelly), Rakugan (dry confection of starch and sugar), etc. The types of foreign confections brought by missionaries included Togasi (Chinese sweets) introduced by Japanese envoys returning from Tang Dynasty China, Dim Sum (Chinese snacks) and Nanbangashi (a variety of sweets derived from Portuguese or Spanish recipes). Japanese people accepted these foreign confections, accepted their taste, and they became accepted as confections with exquisite tastes. Wagasi represented not only an artistic appearance but also the fragrance of incense and a smooth taste when eating. Furthermore, the symbolic names of Wagasi in conjunction with the tea ceremony made us aware of the passing seasons. Also, the use of An has been tried in development of Wagasi, and many originalities and ingenuities resulted for improving taste. An is the traditional foodstuff that embodies the characteristics of the beans perfectly. The relationship of Wagashi and An are as indispensable as two wheels of a cart and these form one part of Japanese original food culture.

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