Selected for JAL Domestic First Class: 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.' A baked sweet from a small village chosen for the best seat in the sky.

The 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.', manufactured and sold by Shimanto Drama Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shimanto Town, Takaoka District, Kochi Prefecture; Representative: Rishei Azechi), has been selected for the Japan Airlines (JAL) domestic first-class in-flight meals for May 2026. This represents a grand stage high in the sky where the 10-year trajectory of persistently using a meticulous manufacturing method and challenging to create a production center for the raw ingredient, the 'Ninjin Imo' (carrot sweet potato), together with producers, has finally borne fruit.

[Shimanto Drama Website] SHIMANTO ZIGURI Store

Kochi's sweet potato pastry adopted for First Class

May 2026 JAL Domestic First Class Selection: 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.'

From April 2026, JAL has been sequentially renewing its domestic services under the concept 'New Angles, New Stories ~ Meeting Japan Again'. As part of this, the first-class in-flight meal service is holding Aomori and Kochi fairs in April and May, under the theme 'Prefectures I've never been to but want to visit' (April-September 2026). Against the backdrop of the dried sweet potato food culture of western Kochi Prefecture, our company's carefully crafted product, 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.', was successfully adopted.

[Selected Product] Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.

[Provision Location] JAL Domestic First Class

[Provision Period] 1 month from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 31, 2026

[Target Flights] JAL Domestic First Class May in-flight meals

JAL domestic services being renewed sequentially from April

Late May 2026 Haneda departure JAL domestic First Class in-flight meal (Lunch/Dinner)

'Higashiyama' is Kochi's unknown food culture

A sweet potato-style pastry with a fragrant, nostalgic taste and a chewy, soft texture.

Manufactured at the 'SHIMANTO ZIGURI FACTORY', a sweets factory built on the banks of the clear Shimanto River, the 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.' is a sweet potato pastry released in April 2015, modeled after 'Higashiyama', a traditional dried sweet potato snack from western Kochi. Characterized by its auspicious golden oval shape and a simple taste that evokes nostalgia, it's a popular sweet potato-style pastry with a buttery flavor that spreads in the mouth. It insists on a manufacturing method that stars the sweet potato without using additives, made from the rare 'Ninjin Imo', a sweet potato with a bright orange color like a carrot.

Modeled after the traditional Kochi snack, dried sweet potato, the 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.' was born.

'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.'

A sweet potato-style baked pastry developed with a meticulous method, such as using 'Ninjin Imo' grown around the Shimanto River basin and not using additives. An auspicious oval shape, accented with fragrant black sesame, it is a sweet potato pastry with a nostalgic taste.

Release: April 2015 Series cumulative sales: 3.36 million units (as of end of December 2025)

Price: 1 piece 238 yen / 4-piece box 950 yen / 12-piece bag 2,850 yen

(Mini size series) 5-piece box 880 yen / 10-piece box 1,724 yen / 15-piece box 2,590 yen

*All prices include consumption tax. Prices may vary slightly depending on the sales location.

The individually sold regular size (left) and boxed mini size were also born from customer feedback.

We also grow the raw materials ourselves.

The 'Ninjin Imo' that supports the food culture of western Kochi Prefecture is an orange sweet potato like a carrot.

When we met the producers in 2014, the 'Ninjin Imo' used as a raw material was only about 300kg from one group. From there, the production areas and volume gradually expanded to 5 cases, then 12 cases, and in 2021, it rapidly expanded to 27 cases and 24 tons. Furthermore, in March 2022, the 'Shimanto Potato Project Council' was launched, and currently, with about 40 producers, it has leaped to an annual production volume of 45 tons, continuing to expand to '150 times' in 10 years.

Protecting primary industries through the 'Shimanto Basin Agriculture' initiative, not using pesticides or chemical fertilizers during cultivation.

At Shimanto Drama, while working with contract farmers to create a production center, we rent abandoned and idle agricultural land in the region and established an agriculture-specialized department within the company (April 2024). Going beyond the framework of a confectionery manufacturer, we are also developing a business to protect the production area while making our own raw materials.

On the land of Shimanto, where the clear Shimanto River flows, we are making our own raw materials.

Higashiyama succeeded in expanding producers and production volume by unearthing the resource 'Ninjin Imo', which had long been used only for dried sweet potatoes, adding new value, and commercializing it. We feel that this miracle occurred because our attempt to preserve industry backed by the local food culture matched JAL's renewal, which advocates rediscovering the charm of Japan.

Permanent store at Hanshin Umeda Main Store

The 'Imo Yakigashi Higashiyama.', manufactured at the factory in Kochi/Shimanto, can be purchased anytime at the 'Shimanto Drama Hanshin Umeda Store' in the Japanese sweets section on the 1st basement floor of the Hanshin Department Store Umeda Main Store in Osaka. As the only store outside Kochi Prefecture, since October 2025...