Think of it like when your mom or dad went on a super cool business trip to Hong Kong when you were a kid and would bring you back a little toy panda. Yeah, it is kind of like that.
Japanese people frequently go on business trips or weekend trips throughout Japan. When on these weekend trips it is polite to consider your poor coworkers who may still be at the job or just bumming around the same ole town. As it goes, Japanese people will often get an omiyage, a small token gift, that often has some resemblance of the city, place, prefecture they were visiting. For example, Nagano is famous for apples, fresh farm grown vegetables, and chestnuts. A reasonable omiyage from there would be apple jam (if it was meant for one person), or a type of chestnut sweet that is individually packaged and can easily be handed out to a number of people, say your fellow co workers...
Omiyages are typically food based, as it is rather cheap to obtain many individual crackers or cookies and such, as opposed to many individual trinkets from the area. Additionally, in Japan cities often pride themselves for one thing or another that is considered a unique food culture specific to that area. Thus to try the local delicacy is considered a treat and to bring back these delicacies for others to enjoy is a treat for them as well. As an added bonus, it also promotes tourism for the originating town.
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