Tag: Aussie Beef

Australia beef is the most visibly successful Australian export to Japan, leaving considerable distance to its closest rivals, which these days are probably Tim Tams, Miranda Kerr and hordes of drunken ocker snow bunnies in country towns like Niseko and Hakuba.
To be honest, Oz doesn’t really enter the consciousness of most Japanese, except for Aussie Beef, which is probably the first thing that comes to mind for many Nihonjin when asked about Oz.
And this year, Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd (MLA) is going all-out to try and convert Japanese consumers to worshiping the barbie in much the same manner that many Aussies do.
MLA is conducting a huge Let’s Barbie campaign to encourage people to use the summer months to enjoy munching away on some good old tucker.

The Let’s Barbie pop-up store in Tokyo’s trendy Aoyama district

And they’re using Strine to do it, too, with part of the campaign involving a pop-up shop placed smack-bang in the middle of Aoyama, one of Tokyo’s trendiest districts, and a huge sign urging passers-by to “barbie!”
The pop-up shop is offering demonstrations of cooking, Strayan-style, and serves up three different kinds of steak and salad “meat parfaits.” There’s Beauty, with lime and ginger, Genki, flavored by chili pepper and garlic, and Let’s Barbie, with lime and mint. All are delicious and served in a cup with salad and mashed spuds.
Part of the campaign is teaching the Japanese about how Aussies barbie. Here’s what the official Let’s Barbie campaign website says about the Barbie…

About the Barbie

What’s a Barbie?
Barbecue Superpower Australia calls barbecues “barbies” and 3-4 times a week, (Aussies) enjoying tucking into thick-cut, Aussie Beef steaks and fresh salads anytime, anywhere. You can relax and enjoy them, and everybody’s all smiles out in the wilds of nature, which brings everybody closer. And the communication tool that brings that about is the Aussie-style barbecue: The Barbie.
Aussie lifestyle is about not putting on airs, and the real thrill of the barbie is being about enjoying communication with your mates and your family.

It’s hard to see what sort of impact the campaign will have. Japanese tend to be great barbecuers, anyway. And while many would gladly abide by the campaigns exhortations to get out and enjoy a good steak with your mates, most are stuck inside the office waiting for the boss to go home before they have any hope of being able to leave.

Strine Biz, Strine Tucker

No Beef About Getting Some Get up and Go!

by Kangaeroo • August 2, 2013

Aussie Beef is, with perhaps Tim Tam bikkies or Uggies in winter, one of the most visibly prominent signs of Australia in the everyday lives of ordinary Japanese.
　平凡な日本人の日常生活の中ではティム・タムビスケットと冬用のUGGブーツに並べてオージー・ビーフが恐らく最も目立つ豪産品であるだろう。
Meat and Livestock Australia has a fine track record for selling Aussie Beef in Japan, dating back to the early 1990s after U.S. negotiators forced the market open in anticipation of selling beef the way the Aussies actually have.
　1990年代前半で市場が自由化された以降豪州食肉家畜生産者事業団がオージー・ビーフ販売の実績を蓄積してきた。皮肉的に、市場参入が可能にした米国側より日本市場で米国産牛肉より意外と売れた。

Uluru shaped from beef for the MLA campaign in Japan.

Now, Aussie Beef has come out with a new promotional campaign centering on the healthier aspects of beef consumption, offering prizes including beef to the equivalent of a single head of cattle or a tour of Australian “power” spots.
　オージー・ビーフがただ今PRキャンペーン中であり、一人当たり牛肉牛1頭分相当及びオーストラリアのパワースポット旅行などの賞品を受賞できる。
Part of the PR campaign running from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 is a series of commercials featuring some occasionally quirky characters who get their get-up-and-go from eating Aussie Beef.
　キャンペーンに伴ってちょっと変わっているキャラがオージー・ビーフを元気にしてくれるPRをする。

オージー・ビーフ＆ラム公式サイト
 「オージー・ビーフで元気」キャンペーンサイト

Strine Tucker, Unknown Nichigo

被災地生徒たちが豪の和牛牧場を訪問

by Kangaeroo • August 10, 2012

Japanese junior high school pupils at the Blackwood Valley Farm in WA on Friday.

　東日本大震災・被災地である福島県飯舘村の中学生16人が西オーストラリア州ボイップ・ブルックの有機農業和牛牧場を訪問し、将来に対しての希望を再び沸かされた、とオーストラリア放送協会（ABC)が10日付報道した。
　中学生たちが夏休みを使って真冬のオーストラリアを訪ねている。
　昨春より東日本大震災・被災地支援活動「いっしょにがんばろう日本(Together with Japan)」を行っているオージー・ビーフ（MLA豪州食肉家畜生産者事業団）の協力の下、オーストラリアの肉牛飼育業がどのように営まれているかを見学するために、現地の牧場を訪問した。
　「今回の訪問は、生徒たちに牛飼い業や地域の立ち直れに繋がればいいな」と同行しているオージー・ビーフ日本担当マネージャー近藤美穂子氏が言った。
元記事（English)
Japanese kids get a taste of farming down under
（訪問先）Blackwood Valley Beef

大きな地図で見る

Strange Strine, Unknown Nichigo, ストラインと日本語

Oops! Austrian textbook error sparks online calls for Japanese to boycott Aussie Beef

by Kangaeroo • June 29, 2012

Japan’s feisty online community briefly urged a boycott of Aussie Beef — arguably Australia’s best-known export to Japan — after an Austrian school textbook referred to the Sea of Japan as the “East Sea,” a Korean label aimed at helping it forget its past as a Japanese colony, according to a June 28 report from online Japanese news site J-Cast.
Australia, which uses Sea of Japan in its school materials and official documents, had nothing to do with the textbook.
Among the comments posted online were “That Australian mob are simple and will fall for anything,” “Why’s Australia calling it the East Sea if it’s not to their east?” and “Is it OK to boycott Aussie Beef?”
The mix-up was apparently sparked by a Japanese tabloid newspaper headline using the character for Australia (豪） in a story about the Austrian textbook that, when referring to the body of water separating Japan and the Asian mainland, chose to use East Sea, the name Koreans have been lobbying persistently to replace the internationally recognized Sea of Japan.
Japan’s online community has a fierce anti-Korean streak and the news soon reportedly sparked demands to boycott Australian beef in Japan, even though Australia had nothing to do with the issue and steadfastly backs use of the Sea of Japan.
Nonetheless, anti-Australian sentiment is also strong within Japan’s online community due to its perceived anti-Japanese sentiment sparked by opposition to whaling, J-Cast said.
It’s not uncommon for confusion to arise between the names of Australia and Austria.
In this Olympic year, it’s worth noting that when Edwin Flack won gold medals in the first-ever modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, confused officials are said to have raised the flag of Austria (then still a middling-power European empire) and played the Austrian national anthem. (This story is probably apocryphal, but widely believed nonetheless).
On the other hand, Austria has carved out a tourist souvenir niche for itself by creating a “No Kangaroos Here” range of souvenirs.