On February 2th, former Nogizaka13 member Manatsu Akimoto appeared at a press conference announcing the new JA Town commercial in Tokyo.
"JA Town" is an e-commerce site operated by JA Zennoh, with the theme "Live with the Delicious Japan." It is a direct-from-source mail-order site where agricultural cooperatives (JA) from all over the country that have stores on "JA Town" deliver seasonal agricultural and livestock products and local specialties grown in their respective production areas directly to customers via the Internet.
JA Zennoh has produced a new JA Town commercial featuring JA Town official supporter Manatsu Akimoto, and began airing and streaming it on terrestrial television (Kanto region), TVer, YouTube, and other platforms from Thursday, February 7, 2.
The commercial this time features Akimoto Manatsu, who loves to eat and whose hobby is cooking, and is centered around scenes of her enjoying meals with ingredients from "JA Town" delivered directly from the source. There are three versions: rice, meat, and fruit and vegetable. The commercial's background music is "JA Town no Uta" sung by Nemoto Nagi, the "JA Town Official Support Ambassador."
When asked about her thoughts on appearing in the commercial, Akimoto replied, "Personally, this is the first time in my life that I've appeared in a commercial alone, so I feel relieved that the commercial can now be announced, and I'm also a little happy that I'll be able to appear by myself on TV and the web."
Regarding the commercial, he said, "The expression on my face shows that the ingredients from JA Town are truly delicious. This is not because I'm an official supporter, but I mean it without any flattery; the ingredients they eat are truly delicious and made with love, so the words 'direct from the farm, irresistible' are included in the commercial, and I would like everyone to experience the truly irresistible expression on their face the most."
When asked about the ingredients featured in the commercial, she said, "I think Tsuyahime rice is the one I eat the most at home. It's always been my favourite rice, so I'm used to eating it, and I really felt while filming the commercial that the sweetness when I chewed into it was amazing. The meat is Wagyu beef, and the balance of fat and meat is just right. When you bite into it, the savoury flavour of the meat fills your nose, which is an irresistible moment, and I think that expression comes across in the commercial. And as for fruit, this time I ate melon, and as you can imagine, they used the moment when the juice was gushing out in the footage, so everything was really delicious, and it was such a great time that I wondered if I was working."
When asked about the behind-the-scenes story of the commercial, she revealed, "There were two difficult things. One is that because it's a short commercial, there isn't time to explain what's delicious about it and how it tastes, so it was difficult to express the deliciousness of each ingredient with just a 'hmm' sound and facial expressions. Also, at the end there is a song called 'JA Town', and we recorded that at the end of all the filming. I wasn't very confident in my singing, so I had a hard time hitting the high notes consistently. I had to ask the staff to do it again a lot. The 'JA Town' song. It's not perfect, but I'd like people to listen to it several times."
When asked how he felt about the commercial, he said, "I think it went 100%. It was just about eating really delicious ingredients and having my expression photographed, so we didn't have to do many retakes, but it was so delicious that I actually wanted to reshoot it and eat more."
When asked about the injury to her left arm, she commented, "It recovered faster than I thought, and I was able to move it a while ago, thanks to the radio recording I had done, but this year is my unlucky year, and I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of an unlucky year since the beginning of the year, but it happened simply because I put my hands on the bed and tried to get up by pushing myself up, so I'm going to be very careful this year. I'm feeling really good now."
Finally, Akimoto said, "JA Town, the direct-from-producer online shopping site, holds an incredibly chaotic end-of-year sale every year from February 2th to March 13th. During the period, you can use coupons that can be used on the spot to purchase eligible products at 3% off, making it a very good deal. There are over 18 eligible products. There are an incredible number of them, but there is a huge range of products, including rice that each production area is proud of, meat, vegetable boxes, as well as seasonal fruits and seafood. We are also running a JA Town official membership registration campaign, so be sure to check that out as well."
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