Live-Action Death Note Actor Becomes a Lettuce to Help Combat Food Waste in Japan

Japanese actor Tatsuya Fujiwara has become the face of an unusual new campaign designed to encourage shoppers to buy more lettuce and help reduce food waste during the peak summer growing season.

Fujiwara is one of Japan’s best-known actors, earning widespread recognition through roles in productions including Battle Royale, Death Note, Kaiji and numerous stage performances, with his expressive reactions making him a familiar face to audiences across the country.

The campaign has been launched by Ajinomoto in partnership with JA Zen-Noh Nagano, the agricultural cooperative representing Nagano Prefecture, which produces around 60% of Japan’s lettuce between summer and autumn.

According to Ajinomoto, recent heatwaves have made it increasingly difficult to maintain lettuce freshness, while company research found that more than 65% of people have thrown away lettuce at home during the summer after failing to use it before it spoiled.

The survey also found that nearly 80% of people mainly eat lettuce as a salad, with many saying they struggle to think of other ways to use a whole head before it goes bad, contributing to unnecessary household food waste.

To tackle the problem, selected lettuces are being wrapped in packaging featuring Fujiwara’s face, turning an everyday vegetable into an eye-catching in-store display designed to encourage more shoppers to pick one up.

The campaign has been given the playful name “Katte Kurettasu,” a Japanese pun combining the phrase “please buy it” with the word for lettuce, while also promoting Ajinomoto’s Cook Do Oyster Sauce as an easy way to prepare the vegetable in different ways.

Each package includes a QR code linking to the “Lettuce Instant Disappearance Recipes” website, which features a range of dishes designed to help households use up an entire lettuce instead of relying solely on salads.

The recipe collection includes quick meals such as chilled lettuce ochazuke, cold oyster sauce mixed noodles, oyster pork shabu with lettuce, grilled garlic lettuce, lettuce gyoza, a generously filled lettuce sandwich and the simple “Instant Disappearance Lettuce” recipe featured in Cook Do’s television commercials starring Fujiwara.

Speaking about the campaign, Fujiwara joked that he had simply been asked if he would “lend his face” because lettuce was in trouble, only to discover the request was completely literal when his face ended up wrapped around the vegetables.

A total of 10,000 specially packaged lettuces will be available while supplies last, with the campaign beginning at Ginza NAGANO on July 21 before expanding to selected Heiwado supermarkets from July 25 and selected Comodi Iida stores from July 27 and July 28.