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TSUBAMEDIA is a publication devoted to edible bird’s nest, run by Japan Bansho Co., Ltd.
Most writing about edible bird’s nest begins somewhere in the middle — with the name of a compound, or the name of a region — and it is hard to know where to start.
So we have put seven pieces in an order. Read them from the top and you should come away with the shape of the whole thing.
We are not going to hand you a conclusion. We would rather hand you the material, and let you look at it and decide for yourself.
A note on language
This publication is written in Japanese. We are translating it, and we are beginning with the pages that describe how we work rather than with the articles themselves — because if you are going to read anything we publish, you should be able to check first where we stand.
The pages that exist in English are listed below — ten of them, covering how we work and the reference material. The seven articles are still in Japanese only. We have put a line of English under each one, so that you can see what is in it before deciding whether to run it through a translator.
In English
EDITORIAL POLICY & DISCLOSURE
Editorial policy and disclosure
Who runs this publication, what the company behind it sells, and the rules we hold ourselves to when we write.
ABOUT
What this publication is, why a company in the business runs it, and the four kinds of article.
COMPANY
Japan Bansho Co., Ltd. — the company details, and its relationship with this publication.
CONTRIBUTORS
The researchers, officials and producers who have helped us report, named with their permission.
Published in Japanese
These seven pieces are the reading path. The titles and the summaries here are ours; the articles themselves are in Japanese.
01
Is edible bird’s nest really a bird’s nest?
What the material actually is, before anything else is said about it.
06
How far has science actually got?in preparation
We asked researchers what is being examined right now.
07
Is it all right for the swiftlets?
Whether the nests should be taken at all. We do not walk around this question.
Reference pages
Four pages the articles lean on. All four are now in English.
GLOSSARY
Glossary of edible bird’s nest terms
Thirty-two terms in five groups, with the figures and the papers they come from.
INSTITUTIONS
The institutions named in these articles
Universities, government bodies, certification bodies, companies. What each one governs — and what it does not examine.
CERTIFICATIONS
The standards that appear in these articles, with their numbers and figures — and what none of them sets.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Every source this publication has cited
Forty-six papers and official documents, gathered mechanically from every article.
TSUBAMEDIA is run by Japan Bansho Co., Ltd., a company that handles edible bird’s nest as a business. We are not a neutral third party, and we would rather say so before you read anything else. Editorial policy and disclosure