About to hit the market this month are Ginbis’ Medetai biscuits. The fish shaped biscuits were created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Taiyaki, the name being a play on the words medotou (congratulations) and taiyaki (the name of the fish shaped snack). Coming in white and plain chocolate flavors, the biscuits were delicious, though I was a little disappointed to discover that there wasn’t any of the yummy filling that is common in original taiyaki.

Also previewed were Moomin brand biscuits from Hokka, which are due out at the end of the month. Given the popularity of Moomin characters, these biscuits are bound to get gobbled up.

In terms of innovation, Ronga Food’s Crepe Stick which was released March 1, was head and shoulders above the competition. Sweet crepes are hugely popular in Japan, with shops selling the freshly made version enjoying massive queues; Ronga have cleverly adapted the snack into a convenience store food format similar to the popular umaibo.

Another smart innovation came from Yaokin who released their crushed pretzel snack a couple of weeks ago. Pretzels are a relatively new snack to Japan and this is the first time I’ve seen the pretzel in this broken format.