Ask the experts what makes a good cheese, and at some point the conversation is going to get down to grass. After all, cheese comes from milk, and the best milk comes from animals raised on grass.

"In Europe, especially in the mountains, there are meadows, flowers and grasses. It's perfect" — for cheese, that is — says Rumiko Honma, owner of Fermier, a gourmet shop in Tokyo that sells more than 400 handmade varieties, most of them from Europe. While European brands still dominate the Japanese market for high quality cheese, though, an increasing number of domestic makers are also trying their hand at gourmet versions.

Fifty-eight-year-old Noriyuki Ikagawa of Chiba Prefecture's Isumi City is one of them. Early one morning this past February, Noriyuki and his wife, Akiko, were preparing a green smorgasbord for their three Jersey cows: Momo, Mimi and month-old Nana. The cows live outside on pasture year-round, but since grass is sparse in winter, Ikagawa piled their trough with rice straw, hay, alfalfa and turnip thinnings from a nearby farm.