InsideJapan News Network

A Japanese delicacy could save millions of people from starvation, it has been claimed.

For 60 years, Yasuharu Tsukahara has been boiling up large pans of locusts in soy sauce, sugar and sake.

"In other regions, boiled locusts are considered weird, but we love them here, said Mr Tsukahara, adding: "Locusts are honest. They gather in fields where tasty rice is produced."

Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Thailand surveyed 50 leading researchers to choose the most edible insects in the world.

While bamboo caterpillars came first, locusts came a respectable fourth, reports Japan Today.

Jun Mihashi, a former professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, said insects will become an important source of protein in the near future.

With surging food prices and a rising world population, alternative sources of food will also become increasingly needed.

According to the University of Kentucky's department of entomology, insects have been part of the Japanese diet since ancient times.