If someone told you the hottest celebrity collaboration in Japan this week involved a head of lettuce, you probably wouldn’t believe them. Yet that’s what’s happening! Shoppers walking into supermarkets are being greeted by shelves full of lettuce wrapped in plastic bearing the unmistakable face of Japanese actor Tatsuya Fujiwara. It’s strange, unsettling, undeniably hilarious and a genuinely smart idea.
Why Is Tatsuya Fujiwara Suddenly The Face Of Lettuce?
The limited-edition campaign is the brainchild of food company Ajinomoto and JA Zen-Noh Nagano, the agricultural cooperative from Nagano Prefecture, Japan’s biggest producer of summer lettuce. Beginning July 21, around 10,000 heads of lettuce have been released across select stores, each wearing Fujiwara’s face instead of the usual plain motifs. The result is impossible to ignore. One glance down the vegetable aisle and it feels as though dozens of the actor’s eyes are staring back at shoppers.
Fujiwara is one of Japan’s most recognisable actors, remembered globally as Shuya Nanahara in the cult film Battle Royale and as Light Yagami in the live-action Death Note movies. His famously intense expressions have made him a favourite in Japanese pop culture for years, which is why the campaign works so well. The packaging is memorable enough to make people stop, laugh and, more importantly, pick up a lettuce they might have otherwise walked past.
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Real Reason Behind Japan’s Celebrity Lettuce Packaging
But wait, behind the internet-breaking visuals is a very real problem. Ajinomoto’s research found that more than 60% of people throw away lettuce during the summer because they fail to finish an entire head before it spoils. The company also discovered that nearly 80% of consumers mostly eat lettuce only in salads, with many admitting they simply don’t know enough recipes to use up the rest. For farmers in Nagano, which supplies much of Japan’s summer lettuce, that waste adds up.
So, instead of another awareness campaign packed with gloomy statistics, they turned to humour. Every pack includes a QR code leading shoppers to easy recipes that make better use of lettuce, from stir-fries and gyoza to pork shabu, grilled lettuce, chilled noodles and even lettuce sandwiches. The campaign itself is called Katte Kurettasu, a playful pun combining katte kure (“please buy it”) with retasu, the Japanese word for lettuce.
Fujiwara has embraced the joke too. He revealed that when Ajinomoto asked if they could “borrow his face” to help save lettuce, he happily agreed, only to realise later they meant printing it on thousands of vegetables. Laughing about it, he said he’d now be “waiting for everyone in the vegetable section.”
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Cover Image Courtesy: liveactions101x/X
FAQs
Why is Tatsuya Fujiwara's face on lettuce in Japan?
Japanese actor Tatsuya Fujiwara is fronting a limited-edition campaign by Ajinomoto and JA Zen-Noh Nagano to encourage people to buy and fully use lettuce instead of letting it go to waste.
What is the Katte Kurettasu campaign?
Katte Kurettasu is a playful Japanese campaign that combines the phrase katte kure ("please buy it") with retasu ("lettuce"). It uses celebrity packaging and recipe ideas to reduce household food waste.
Who is Tatsuya Fujiwara?
Tatsuya Fujiwara is a renowned Japanese actor best known internationally for playing Shuya Nanahara in Battle Royale and Light Yagami in the live-action Death Note films.
