A movement has started in Japan to use green lanterns (midori chochin) to signify restaurants here that use domestic ingredients in their food.

Jidori Hirokawa, a chicken dish restaurant in the basement of a building in the Kanda area of Tokyo began hanging midori-chochin, unlike traditional aka-chochin (red lanterns), at the top of the staircase leading to it in April.

The green-paper lantern has a sign reading, “This restaurant supports local produce.” The lantern also is decorated with four black stars on a five-star scale, indicating that at least 80 percent of the ingredients it uses are domestically produced.

Restaurants sporting the midori chochin are rated using a star system from one (50% domestic products) to five (90%).

Sounds nice, but since the entire scheme is based on the honor system, it is probably meaningless as the Japanese food industry has become notorious of late for mislabeling their products. So I guess all this system does is allow people to decide whether they prefer Chinese lies or the domestic kind.

See a list of midori-chochin restaurants here (Japanese).