Japanese Melons: Indulge in the Extraordinary Sweetness of Japan’s Finest!

In Japanese culture, it is just as customary to receive fruit as a gift as it is to receive wine or chocolate. In fact, Japanese melons, in particular, are so expensive that they may even cost more than a year’s salary.

Japanese melons are expensive! 

Across Japan, people are very proud of their hometown’s fruit and vegetables. They often select local Japanese fruit as omiyage (souvenirs) to bring back to friends and colleagues after visiting family back home. 

If you visit any Japanese department store basement, you’ll find a bunch of perfectly shaped, mouth-watering fruit at jaw-dropping prices. You can also find fruit at gift shops and souvenir markets. And more than just perfectly shaped; you may spot a square watermelon, some heart-shaped pears, or even diamond oranges. These are some of the most expensive fruits in Japan, but they are definitely a fun option.

But none are more prized than the melon. Melons, too, come in various specialized shapes, but melons even have different grades to indicate sweetness and size. 

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Japanese Melons

Many regions in Japan grow melons. Like wine, the type of melon from each region varies; each one is prized as much as the next. The three main (and most expensive) types of melon are:

• Yubari King Melon (Hokkaido)
• Crown Melon (Shizuoka)
• Ibara King Melon (Ibaraki)

Japanese melons can be so expensive that they can serve as free advertising. The price of Japanese melons is widely documented worldwide in some of the most prominent news outlets. This means that companies buy the melon to get their company name in the news rather than simply its deliciousness.

Japanese Melon Ratings

The types of melon range from ‘good’ yuki, ‘superior’ shiro, ‘excellent’ yama, to ‘especially excellent’ fuji. Melons with minor blemishes make up the ‘good’ rating, and around half are sold at a ‘superior’ rating. This is compared to an ‘especially excellent’ rating, of which only around 0.1% of melons make the grade each year.

Yubari Melon

Yubari melon comes from the region of Yubari, in the Hokkaido Prefecture. It’s famous for its juicy, orange flesh and honey-like flavor, a hybrid of Burpee’s Spicy cantaloupe and Earl Favorite melon.

The small city of Yubari is known for its drastically aging population and the Yubari film festival that was started to revitalize the area. Thanks to the Yubari melons, the city attracts tourists each year who want to sample some of the best, freshest melons in the world (literally). 

I have visited to sample this melon, which is genuinely mouth-wateringly delicious. You can eat the melon with a spoon as the flesh is so soft and sweet, and you can squeeze the skin into a cup at the end to get a cup of delicious melon juice. It is one of the most delicious Hokkaido foods, and I thoroughly recommend it.

In fact, the Yubari is typically the most expensive melon out of all the melon types. The most famous Yubari melon sold at the season’s first auction set the record price back in 2019, with one pair of Yubari King Melons selling for a whopping 5 million yen or around $43,300. This pair of Yubari melons was bought by Tokyo-based company Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage Ltd.

Even after the effects of COVID, the melon price power has stayed strong. The price dropped to 5% in 2020 but went back in 2021 to nearly 3 million yen for a pair, with the price only set to head upwards. 

Crown Melon

The Crown Melon is a descendant of a UK brand of melon and muskmelon with light-colored flesh and a wonderful fragrance. Crown Melon has an exceptionally high price tag because of its meticulous cultivation process. 

The Crown Melon is grown in Shizuoka Prefecture and involves maintaining one single fruit per stalk, the ‘One Tree, One Fruit’ policy, and cultivation every day over 100 days. 

The melon farmer massages and polishes each melon while wearing gloves. Such is the dedication to each massage that farmers go through several pairs of gloves each season.

Ibara Melon

Ibara King Melon is arguably the most accessible and famous Japanese melon, grown in the top melon-producing region: Ibaraki Prefecture, next to Tokyo. This melon (AKA King of Ibaraki) is known for its delicate flavor, supreme sweetness, and smooth, dark yellow or green flesh. 

The youngest of the bunch, Ibara King Melon has only been produced since 2011, resulting from a 10-year-long agricultural process, testing, and trialing various melon hybrids to reach optimal sweetness. It is said that the Ibara King Melon is a hybrid of 400 different types of melon! Have you ever had a Yubari Melon?