About a month ago, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries released this interesting PSA (Public Service Announcement) to alert Japanese consumers about the inevitable long term effects of their changing pallets.

As the cool animated video takes us from the once-upon-a-time healthy Japanese diets based on locally grown foods to the “and now” more westernized diet of oils and meats, we see Japan’s local farming industries erode, and the bellies of our happy example family expand.

The animation was done by Groovisions from Tokyo. The video style brings to mind the Norwegian musical video ‘Remind Me’ by music duo Royksopp (seen below). Interestingly enough, the Royksopp video ends with a zoom-in on the island of Japan.

All in all, a very attractive effort by the Japanese government to speak to their populous in an easy and fun way that everyone can understand, while creating a real viral asset.

My question is: where are Canada’s PSAs? Albeit a polished approach like the Japanese one is not expected, we surely have issues of our own to alert the public about.