Japanese-style diet (日本型食生活) is a dietary lifestyle influenced by traditional Japanese eating habits that center around rice as the staple food, along with vegetables, soybeans, fish, and seaweed. It avoids excessive consumption of animal fats, salt, and sugar. This concept was first proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 1980 and advocated in 1983. Opinions suggesting that overly refined rice is undesirable were ultimately not included in the final proposal. Similar guidelines were established in the Dietary Guidelines of 1985, which have been revised about every 15 years. After the end of World War II in 1945, Japan, amidst severe food shortages, received food aid from the United States and promoted a Western-style diet using such food supplies. However, when health problems caused by the diet became apparent in the US itself and the "US Dietary Goals" were established in 1977, Japan began exploring the concept of a Japanese-style diet.
History The "Japanese-style diet" is based on the dietary habits of Japanese people in the 1970s, centered around rice, with main dishes, side dishes, and a variety of foods such as fish, vegetables, and fruits. The basic structure consists of a soup and three dishes, namely a main dish and two side dishes. By centering on rice, a balanced meal can be assembled with a variety of combinations such as Japanese-style, Western-style, and Chinese-style side dishes, promoting nutritional variety. This diet of rice, fish, and vegetables is internationally recognized as a major reason why Japanese people have one of the world's longest life spans. It is considered a healthy and longevity-promoting diet. It is also considered desirable in terms of food self-sufficiency and food safety. In the post-World War II food shortages, a large quantity of flour was imported with American economic aid. As part of the occupation policy, school lunches mainly consisted of bread and skimmed milk powder, promoting a bread-eating culture among children. General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, boasted, "We have come to transform the poor Japanese diet of rice, fish, and vegetables into a rich diet of bread, meat, and milk." Furthermore, when flour became freely sold in 1952, the Nutrition Improvement Law was enacted, aiming to promote Westernization of the diet. This was in line with the statement of Crawford F. Sams, the Director of the Public Health and Welfare Bureau of the GHQ, who said "the Pacific War was a confrontation between a bread-eating people and a rice-eating people, and the conclusion was that the bread-eating people were superior." The Ministry of Health and Welfare, based on the Nutrition Improvement Law, conducted a National Nutrition Survey and started a nutrition improvement movement. As a result, nutrition education at the time was based on Western nutrition science, with a noticeable trend towards following the West, including a focus on bread. Rice, the traditional staple food of the Japanese, was sidelined and the market was saturated. In 1970, rice reduction and purchase restrictions began. The annual per capita consumption of rice, which peaked at 118.3 kilograms in 1962, declined steadily, falling to half, around 60 kilograms, in the late 1990s.
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