Ishiba Shigeru, chairman, parliamentary assembly for the promotion of ramen culture: It’s delicious! It’s not just tasty for rice flour, but rice flour is delicious.

Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Ishiba Shigeru and other ramen culture assembly members met on May 21 to try ramen noodles made from rice flour.

In addition to Ishiba, LDP’s former General Council Chairperson, Endo Toshiaki, as well as members from the Japan Innovation Party were also in attendance.

Members of the group compared three different types of noodles developed by industry associations: made from either rice flour, domestic wheat, or imported wheat.

Ishiba Shigeru, chairman, parliamentary assembly for the promotion of ramen culture: We need to increase rice consumption in Japan. This will lead to higher self-sufficiency. I ate ramen made from rice flour for the first time in my life today. It was really delicious.

The group, made up of lawmakers from several parties, was established in 2022 in a bid to improve food security and food self-sufficiency for Japan.

It hopes to promote rice-flour noodles in order to achieve those goals.