23. Mushrooms

Japan is home to thousands of different mushroom species. Some can be found lining the supermarket shelves, but others serve as natural tourist attractions, and even a poisonous species may be used to make dye. This time on Japanology Plus, our theme is mushrooms. Our main guest is Eguchi Fumio. He talks about his research into the health benefits of mushrooms, and their potential use in new medicines. And in Plus One, we discover some of Japan's more unusual species.