By YOKO HIBINO/ Staff Writer
December 21, 2025 at 07:00 JST
Matcha ice cream at Sawawa in Kyoto’s Arashiyama district comes with an edible spoon. (Yoko Hibino)
KYOTO--Local tourism officials and shop operators are testing a wafer-like edible spoon as a way to reduce litter from visitors’ takeaway food.
Three shops along Nagatsuji-dori street in the popular tourist area of Arashiyama are providing the consumable cutlery in the trial run.
The spoons, branded “Pacoon” (a playful name suggesting “bite and eat”), are produced by a company in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture.
Made from flour, sugar, eggs and vegetable powders, the spoons come in five flavors, including pumpkin and okara soy pulp.
At cake shop Sawawa, known for its matcha desserts, customers ordering ice cream now receive a spoon they can eat along with their treat.
Staff say customer reactions have been positive, with visitors remarking that the spoons taste good and add value to their purchases.
Sawawa’s operator, Telacoya Co., has also noticed a decrease in trash discarded outside the shop.
The edible utensil concept emerged from a series of workshops held since last year by Kyoto officials and local shop owners to address litter problems.
Over the summer, officials organized tasting sessions comparing edible spoons, straws and plates.
Some items proved impractical. For example, plates for dango dumplings were too filling. Eventually, spoons were selected for the trial.
The city is subsidizing half the cost, with local shops covering the rest. Sawawa and two other ice cream vendors are participating in the pilot program.
The biggest obstacle to wider adoption is cost. Conventional biomass spoons cost about 1 yen (0.6 cent) each, while Pacoon spoons are priced at 76 yen apiece.
Local merchants worry that passing the expense on to customers could make the initiative unsustainable. They believe that businesses shouldn’t be penalized for doing the right thing.
“It’s unfair for shops working to reduce litter to bear extra costs all by themselves,” said Keisuke Ishikawa, head of the local shop owners’ association. “We need to work with city officials to, for example, make edible utensils mandatory in Arashiyama.”
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