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[Black_Beer_Man]

Japan is one of the rare countries in the G8 that does not have a strong vegetarian culture.

I haven't even met a Japanese vegetarian or vegan. Restaurants that specialize in vegetarian cuisine are rare here.

The Japanese are known for importing great ideas from the West and improving and / or modifying them for their own use. Yet, this is one idea that they have not.

Your thoughts on this?

[kpjf]

https://thisjapaneselife.org/2011/09/07/japan-vegetarian-food/

[currentaffairs]

Never had a problem in six years of living in Japan... Sometimes you had to be clear and there wasn't a lot of understanding about exactly what a vegetarian could eat. However, the macrobiotic movement was taking off in Tokyo while I was there, which originally was created by a Japanese doctor who served in the army.. It is based on the Buddhist temple food, shojin ryori.

[timothypfox]

No, vegetarian food is very difficult to find at restaurants, but it is easy enough to cook it at home with many available ingredients.

My father is vegetarian and he wanted to stay at a fancy ryokan one night. My wife ordered a vegetarian dinner for him in advance (for him that allows fish and dairy) which went pretty well for most of the meal except for one dish. Mid-way through the meal one of the servers asked if bacon would be okay in the next dish....

[Black_Beer_Man]

What amazes me is that when I go into a convenience store to buy some kind of bento, my vegetarian options are severely limited. Almost nil.

I can buy a small salad packed in a big nasty disposable environmentally unfriendly plastic container. So, I usually leave with a cheese and ham sandwich.

I'm not vegetarian per say, but I try to eat vegetarian food when that option is available.

[mitsui]

There used to be but then in the Meiji era people imitated westerners and started eating meat.

I guess you should head to Kyoto.

You have to look around. Stuck with beans, tofu, eggs.
Have mabudofu and cha-han.
Have a vegetarian curry - add beans, potatoes and a carrot.
I like oyaki from Nagano.

From Miyagi there are a few kinds of burgers - from tofu, carrots, and fish.

[kpjf]

[izmigari]

Interestingly enough, Okinawa, with it braised pork-belly eating self boasts some of the longest-lived people in the world!

Go figure!

[TokyoLiz]

Japan does have a sophisticated vegetarian food culture, shojin riyori, developed in temples.

I was talking to my man about food culture here. He's from deep rural Ibaraki. He says older family members recalled the privation of post war Japan, and he confirms that American food aid played a big part in the changing food preferences in Japan. Pre-war people ate vast amounts of rice and veg, but post war, people began eating a wide variety of foods, with meat.

Feeding kids milk, bread and meat became a high priority, and vegetarian diet didn't figure.

Here's an excerpt of a book about the changes in Japanese diet

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/how-the-japanese-diet-became-the-japanese-diet/

[rxk22]

[TokyoLiz]

Rxk22 said

[rxk22]

[TokyoLiz]

My guy thinks the increase in meat consumption is about emulating western culture.

I think it's about raising hardier children. I'm average height for a Canadian woman, and 10 kg less than average. My junior high girls are often as tall as me or taller.

[/url]http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-12-04-size-age_x.htm[url]

A Canadian friend who has visited Japan infrequently for the last ten years remarks on the increasing height of Japanese people. She says from her first visit to her most recent, young Japanese seem to tower over her. She has noticed the change in the diet, too, to greater meat consumption.

[rxk22]

[Black_Beer_Man]

It's funny how, in the West, doctors are telling us to eat more fish and veggies. Whereas here, they're pushing meat.

I guess everybody in Japan is eating factory-farmed meat which is cruelly produced and contains antibiotic drug residues. The antibiotics found in meat renders many of over-the-counter antibiotic drugs ineffective when patients need to take them.

It's rather surprising that Japan does not promote more soy in the diet because it's a soy-producing country. Tofu contains no cholesterol, is lower calory and digests more easily than meat.

I don't know why the school children don't drink soymilk instead of cow's milk? Cow's milk also contains antibiotic drug residue.

It's not natural to drink cow's milk anyway. The human is the only animal on Earth that drinks milk after infancy.

If the reason why Japanese eat more meat is to copy Westerners, they've really done a disservice to themselves. The original Japanese diet is healthier.