wasabi is native to mountain streams in Japan and is cultivated for its short pungent stems which are similar in flavour to horseradish root (amoracia rusticana (Gaertn)) to which it is distantly related. both belong to the cruciferae although wasabi is grown through-our most of Japan , some three-quarters of the commercial production is concentrated in the prefectures saitoma , nagano and shizouka , or in the tokyoarea some wasabi is also culridated in taiwan but it fetches relatively low prices on Japanese markets (follett 1986)