[Feature: The Future of Japanese "Food"] Tatsuya Mitsuda: Meat-Eating in the 21st Century from the Perspective of Meat-Eating History

Data on children's eating habits is contained in the "White Paper on Elementary School Students," which has been published periodically by the Gakken Education Research Centers and Institutes since 1989. Looking at the 2019 survey and deciphering the responses of children born in the Heisei era regarding their favorite foods, it is clear that "meat dishes" appear in many of the popular dishes (Figure 1). Excluding "Sushi" (40.8%), which reigns in first place, the second-place "Fried Chicken/Karaage" (25.2%), fifth-place "Curry Rice" (21.9%), sixth-place "Yakiniku" (21.8%), seventh-place "Hamburger Steak" (17.8%), and tenth-place "Steak" (11.1%) are all Western-style dishes that use beef, pork, or chicken as ingredients. Furthermore, while sales in the restaurant industry have fallen significantly due to the repeated declarations of states of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many restaurants, led by izakayas, have been forced out of business, yakiniku restaurants are putting up a good fight. It is said that the ventilation provided by smokeless roasters creates a sense of security, so the number of customers has not dropped as much as expected. As a result, many national chains are showing an aggressive stance by increasing their number of stores. From these facts, it is easy to fall into the impression that the popularity of meat-eating in Japan is high.

However, when compared to the rest of the world, Japan's "meat-eating level" cannot be said to be high. Let's focus on the consumption of beef, which is often targeted for its significant negative impact on the environment. According to the "OECD/FAO Meat Consumption Statistics" (Figure 2), Argentina, ranked first in the world, consumes 36 kg of beef per person annually. This is followed by the United States at 26 kg, Brazil and Israel at 24 kg, Chile and Kazakhstan at 21 kg, and Australia at 18 kg, suggesting that beef demand is robust across regions.

On the other hand, it is difficult to find Japan's rank in the standings. Approximately 8 kg, which is about half of the OECD average of 14 kg, enters the stomachs of Japanese people every year. This figure is lower than South Korea's 12 kg and Russia and Vietnam's 10 kg, and is on par with Egypt. Although the elementary school survey showed that the popularity of Western-style food is steady, beef consumption is only close to the global average of 6 kg.

This low consumption is due to the fact that beef prices in Japan are high compared to other countries. Consumers have to pay several times more than those in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy, making it difficult to afford. When making curry, many households likely avoid expensive beef and choose more affordable pork or chicken. Even if "de-meatification" progresses globally in the future, Japan will not start from a high consumption base, at least regarding beef.

Japan began its path toward meat-eating at the end of the Edo period. Until then, beef and other animal meats tended to be avoided. While prohibitions on eating meat based on Buddhist thought contributed to the formation of taboos, it was also related to the need to protect cattle as essential labor for agriculture and avoid the collapse of the agricultural economy, meaning they could not be used for food. However, this does not mean that meat was not distributed at all. The habit of secretly eating meat from wild animals such as horses, deer, wild boars, and birds through hunting had existed since the early modern period. Due to the guilt of eating it, meat was sold using code names such as "Sakura" (cherry blossom) for horse, "Momiji" (maple) for deer, "Yamakuijira" (mountain whale) for wild boar, and "Kashiwa" (oak) for chicken. As can be seen from the "Yamakuijira" sign in the ukiyo-e print "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Bikunihashi in Snow" (1858) (Figure 3), it is known that there was a certain amount of demand, mainly in urban areas.

However, after the Meiji Restoration, the aversion to meat-eating gradually faded. Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835–1901), who visited the West in the 1860s as a member of the Edo Shogunate's mission, wrote "Western Clothing, Food, and Housing" in 1867 under the name Junnosuke Katayama, attempting to spread information about life in civilized nations. Later, at the request of a beef sales company established in Tsukiji, Tokyo, he published "The Theory of Meat-Eating" in 1870. He sounded an alarm, stating, "Currently, many of our citizens lack meat in their diet, leading to poor health and a decline in vitality. This is a loss for the nation," and strongly encouraged eating meat as a means of reforming the Japanese diet. Specifically, since Japanese cuisine based on plant-derived ingredients lacked nutrition, he tried to persuade a society skeptical of meat-eating to popularize Western-style food based on animal-derived ingredients. For example, he pointed out the contradiction of meat-eating conservatives who ate whale meat, arguing that in contrast to whales, which swallow unknown things in polluted oceans, meat from livestock raised under complete human management is an extremely hygienic food that can minimize health risks. Intellectuals like Fukuzawa contributed significantly to the meat-eating trend in Japan.

The state also tried to promote meat-eating. The Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Toshimichi Okubo (1830–1878), set out to improve the poor native cattle by purchasing breeding bulls from advanced agricultural countries in the West and repeatedly crossbreeding them with Japanese breeds to increase the number and size of domestic cattle. Starting in the 1860s, Shorthorn and Devon breeds were brought from Britain to be lent to farmers nationwide. As soon as it was discovered that these British breeds did not suit Japan's geographical conditions, they switched to importing Ayrshire, Simmental, and Brown Swiss breeds from mountainous regions like Scotland and Switzerland to develop the domestic environment for meat production.

Furthermore, the Meiji government, which advocated for a "Wealthy Nation and Strong Army," moved to adopt beef because meat was essential for the provisions of advanced Western armies. The Navy was quick to add beefsteak and roast beef, as well as canned beef as portable rations, to its military diet. The Army, which was initially skeptical, also began accepting beef as rations in 1877, and from then on, the habit of eating beef became established among soldiers.

Thanks in part to these efforts, by the 1880s, the aversion to eating beef had disappeared, mainly in urban areas, and a "Gyunabe" (beef hot pot) boom—the ancestor of modern sukiyaki—erupted. Shohei Kimura (1841–1906) started a gyunabe chain in 1880, opening at least 22 stores in Tokyo starting with Mita Shikoku-cho (now Shiba 2-5 chome, Minato-ku). As it gained popularity particularly among the middle class, beef eventually became a food symbolizing the "Civilization and Enlightenment" (Bunmei Kaika). Thus, the fuse for Japan's meat-eating trend was lit.

However, Japan's meat-eating trend stagnated after the 1890s because a production system capable of meeting the expanding demand could not be established.

First, the policy of semi-forced crossbreeding with Western breeds failed due to opposition from producers. Cold eyes were cast upon officials who were repeatedly sent to Europe and America under the guise of research at enormous expense, and the attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, which viewed Wagyu only as a vessel for Western breeds, came under fire. At the root of the problem were the geographical constraints of domestic livestock farming. While cheap beef could be supplied in the United States and Australia, where cattle could be raised in large quantities on vast land, Japan, with its many mountainous areas, lacked the conditions for large-scale livestock farming. Even when cultivating feed, it had to compete for farmland with grain production for human consumption. Improvement policies alone were not enough.

Successive wars added to this poor supply system. The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), and World War I (1914–18) not only strengthened militarism but also required large amounts of beef as military provisions, leading to a sharp decrease in the number of cattle in Japan and a surge in beef prices. In response to this situation, efforts were focused on the production of pork, which is easy to raise and has high fertility, and movements to popularize meats other than beef, such as utilizing old horses for meat, became active. Meanwhile, to meet the pressing demand for beef, the import of foreign beef also began in earnest. In the 20th century, raw meat and live cattle began to be transported across the sea from Australia, Qingdao in China, and Korea.

Although this foreign beef was cheaper than domestic beef, it is interesting that profitability and affordability did not directly lead to its popularization. Why? Globally, intercontinental beef trade using freezing and refrigeration technology dates back to the 1860s. Major livestock-producing countries like the United States and Australia exported a lot of meat to European countries, which had become large markets, but in Japan, there was deep-rooted distrust of new technology, and frozen/refrigerated beef did not easily catch on. For example, Qingdao beef was called "Ohiya" (cold water), and both dealers and consumers hesitated to eat foreign beef transported from distant locations, fearing it had lost its freshness.

In this regard, the case of Korean cattle (meat) is suggestive. After 1910, Korean cattle, which had become colonial cattle, were imported in large numbers as live cattle from Busan and Wonsan to the mainland, unlike beef imported as raw meat from Australia and China. Korean cattle, which were popular as draft animals, were put to work on domestic farms and then fattened just like domestic cattle. In other words, they were slaughtered without being recognized as foreign and ended up in the stomachs of Japanese people. The background to this was related to pre-war business practices. Today, livestock are slaughtered near the production area and transported long distances as frozen/refrigerated meat before being sold at the point of consumption. However, at that time, livestock were transformed into food only after arriving at slaughterhouses near the point of consumption, and it is thought that there was a sense of security in being able to directly confirm the origin and the freshness of the carcass.

It was not until after the 1970s that foreign chilled meat, along with meat vacuum-packed by cut in supermarkets, came to be bought without any sense of oddity.

As we follow a world that now seems to have turned toward de-meatification, is there anything Japan can learn from the dawn of its meat-eating era?

One thing to mention is the method of recommendation by the state. Just as the "Wealthy Nation and Strong Army" was a national policy for the entire country, if we truly aim for de-meatification, we need to set a grand ambition. However, what history teaches us is the importance of appropriate engagement with producers and consumers. We must avoid actions like forcing Western breeds on domestic cattle producers, and we must develop a de-meatified economy so as not to enter an emergency (war) before the domestic production system is ready.

However, even if the production system is ready, if social demand is weak, de-meatification will remain halfway. During the Meiji period, as a byproduct of militarism, many citizens became accustomed to the taste of beef through military service and learned of its high nutritional value, which caused the aversion to meat-eating to disappear. To dispel resistance to meat alternatives such as soy meat, it would be effective, for example, to partially incorporate artificial meat into school lunches as part of food education. At that time, we should also pay attention to naming. History teaches us the importance of words, as seen in how frozen/refrigerated meat was renamed "chilled meat" to remove the "Ohiya" label.

Furthermore, the role played by opinion leaders who advocate for de-meatification cannot be overlooked. At the dawn of meat-eating, intellectuals and scientists led by Fukuzawa developed educational activities through print media such as newspapers and magazines, but the role of leading the way for de-meatification will likely be taken by influencers who can effortlessly use digital media, including SNS. If new eating habits spread easily among the younger generation, YouTube and Instagram could have a significant influence.

Additionally, visualizing the production, distribution, and sales processes could be key. Modern consumers do not reflect on the "farm to table" journey of a product, and as long as it does not have a shape that reminds them of an animal, they do not directly link meat to cows, pigs, or chickens. What we see from the acceptance of foreign beef before the war is that the reactions of consumers were completely different: the origins of Australian and Qingdao beef were visualized through their product names, while "Korean beef," which was basically imported as live cattle, was made invisible. If we intend to achieve de-meatification by giving consumers a perspective on animal welfare, we will need a system that allows consumers to trace for themselves how meat came to be sold in supermarkets. In fact, technology already exists to scan product barcodes or QR codes with a smartphone to instantly obtain production and distribution information, much like a package tracking service, but we must determine whether such new consumer habits should be rooted in Japan.

Finally, Japanese food is a cuisine that is easy to de-meatify. Soybeans, the raw material for Japanese food, are used in "tofu," "natto," "soy sauce," and "miso," and contain a lot of plant protein. Japanese food is easily adaptable to vegetarian and vegan dishes, and many traditional restaurants provide vegetarian and vegan-friendly meals for foreign guests, even changing the dashi (broth) to plant-based ingredients. As the post-pandemic era begins and foreign tourists return to Japan, the resumption of exchanges with other countries could trigger a rapid progression of de-meatification. While soybean production is by no means environmentally friendly, it remains an important ingredient for advancing de-meatification.

Japan, where meat consumption is not high even by global standards, has a food culture where de-meatification is relatively easy to achieve. To that end, we may need to slightly modify some of the ingredients in the favorite foods of elementary school students.