Japan's infatuation with curry bread (カレーパン karēpan in Japanese) is showing no signs of waning any time soon. With their tasty curry roux filling and often crispy fried buns, these breads are a popular item at bakeries and convenience stores all over Japan.

So then, perhaps it will come as no surprise to our readers that there's a 日本カレーパン協会 (nihon karēpan kyōkai | Japan Currypan Association). Established in 2013, the association, headquartered in the Takanawa neighborhood of Minato Ward, Tokyo, strives to "disseminate information on, popularize and improve the status of curry bread, as well as conduct research on curry bread." The association is known for holding various events, perhaps most famous of which is the Curry Bread Grand Prix. As some of our readers may recall, the 2022 winner was the Butter Chicken Curry Dog from Nagoya's Green Bread Factory an-j.

In a press release today, the association announced that 宮脇小百合 Sayuri Miyawaki was elected as the next chair of the association at the regular general meeting held earlier this month. She will take office on January 1, 2023.

In addition to her knowledge of curry breads and her contribution to the development of the association, the reasons given for her selection included her love of curry bread, as demonstrated by the number she has eaten...

Over 8,500 curry breads

Let's do the math. Miyawaki was born in 1964, so that makes her around 58 years old. If she had her first curry bread at the age of 10, as she states in her blog, and has maintained her rate of eating one every 3 days ever since, as she wrote in January 2019, this means that in 48 years, she would have only eaten 5,840 breads, which doesn't add up to 8,500. So then, how did she eat all those breads?

Perhaps she has increased her consumption rate since her January 2019 blog entry. She would have eaten around 5,350 breads in the 44 years between 1974 and 2018, then increased her rate to two and a half a day to account for the remaining 3,150 breads. Or maybe all the additional breads were consumed at the various events she attended. Sometimes featured products are cut up into smaller pieces to allow attendees to sample them.

In any case, that's a prodigious amount of curry bread. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that she's eaten enough curry bread to qualify for the post. At the very least, that seems to be the association's reasoning in highlighting this specific number in their press release.

Of course, the chairwoman-elect has also been recognized for her other accomplishments.

Miyawaki gained experience in programming and marketing before moving from her native Miyazaki to Tokyo, where she joined the marketing team of Trend Micro's Virus Buster, playing a crucial role in its success as the top antivirus software in Japan. At 37, she started her own business as a consultant, began making appearances on TV, published books, and gained exposure in magazines and newspapers. She also holds seminars throughout Japan and "continues to eat curry bread at every opportunity."

Comment by Sayuri Miyawaki