— Celebrating Regional Food Culture and Creativity — Announcement of 'Gastronomy City Award 2026' Winning Cities

The Gastronomy City Award, organized by the Gastronomy City Research Association (Representative Director: Hashizume), is Japan's first award that evaluates and honors the appeal of a region's unique gastronomic culture and food-centric urban development initiatives. Aiming to promote regional branding and revitalization through food and strengthen its transmission power domestically and internationally, it plays a role in discovering and supporting model cases of sustainable regional promotion.

Established in 2024, the "Gastronomy City Award" marks its 3rd edition this year, and we have finally reached the announcement of the 2026 winning cities/areas that contribute to the innovation of food culture and regional promotion across the country.

The cities selected for the award are those that have succeeded in leveraging the unique culture and food appeal of their region to create new culture and businesses, ultimately attracting tourists from home and abroad, and enhancing the value of those regional cities.

This year, from among 54 cities/areas nationwide recommended by open self-nomination or by experts, after strict screening, the list was narrowed down to 10 cities/areas. Finally, the following 4 cities/areas were selected as "Gastronomy Cities".

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[Winning Cities]
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■ Yoichi Town (Hokkaido)
■ Hachinohe City (Aomori Prefecture)
■ Hida City (Gifu Prefecture)
■ Hita City (Oita Prefecture)

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[Background of Award Decision and Screening Process]
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This award comprehensively evaluates not just simple "deliciousness", but the connection between the region's history, culture, and industry with food, and its contribution to sustainable urban development. It is characterized by highly evaluating the creation of new businesses utilizing local resources and public-private partnership initiatives.

In this selection process, 54 cities/areas were first nominated as candidates by judges (7 members) and through public self-nominations. From the 54 nominated cities/areas, a strict screening was conducted using evaluation criteria based on 10 items, such as the uniqueness of each region's ingredients, initiatives by chefs and restaurants, local producers and specialty products, food festivals, and food culture promotion measures by DMOs and local governments. As a result, the list was narrowed down to 10 cities/areas.

From the 10 cities/areas that remained in the final selection, those that cleared the standard score were comprehensively evaluated, and 4 cities/areas were certified as award-winning cities. Please note that cities/areas that have won the award in the past are not eligible from the next time onwards, so the winning cities of FY2024 and FY2025 were not included in this selection.