Kamatani has found success too, but by going a different way. For her, she felt that the snack’s old-school image needed to change. “Young women like sweet potatoes, but they have this image as ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘lame’, and people think ‘I want to eat them, but they’re embarrassing to buy’,” she said.
To subvert that reputation, she focused on onkochishin – an idiom meaning “learning new ideas from the past” – and started her venture with a stylish, tricked-out, pink VW campervan in 2018. Fast-forward to 2021, and her business has moved into a permanent (and still pink) storefront in the fashionable Omotesando district of Tokyo. “All of the sales staff, the imo [potato] girls and imo boys, are influencers,” she explained. “They’re cool, fashionable young men and women.”
Despite Kamitani’s modern approach, she recognised the allure of those old-school vendors. “I don’t think [they] will disappear,” she said. “Because they are ‘rare’, there are some customers who are fascinated by that sense of rarity and want to buy from them, so there is a certain demand.”
For those willing, starting a yaki-imo truck is relatively easy. Unlike other gastronomic enterprises in Japan, no food licence is needed – only a permit to sell from the truck. There’s even a company called Yaki-imo Kobo (Yaki-imo Workshop) that provides information for potential vendors and sells everything they’ll need to set up a mobile shop – including cassette tapes of the yaki-imo song.
“I think there’s a growing appreciation and nostalgia for food vendors that will allow them to continue,” Rath said. “The yaki-imo seller is one of the harbingers of the seasons… It’s hard to imagine an urban landscape without them.”
For Tanaka, the secret is simplicity: roasted sweet potatoes are naturally sweet and can be eaten straight off the coals. It’s nutritious, filling and “a great snack alternative to junk food”, she said. “Yaki-imo is and always will be a heart-warming treat that holds many fond memories.
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