Food Education in Japan

Food education is something that is taken very seriously in Japan. According to Japan’s Cabinet Office, the drive for educating about food is to help individuals gain knowledge about nutrition and develop the ability to maintain a healthy diet through everyday experiences. I would love to see other countries promote food education as much as Japan does.

Food Education is incorporated into school life from the get-go. Thanks to the school lunch system, lessons in textbooks and school events children learn about food from an early age. I have much respect for the school lunch system in Japan. Apart from knowing my children are fed well every day at school, I know they are learning about food too. And I get to learn from the materials that get sent home. Take for example the menu for the school lunch that gets sent home monthly. In our school, it is more than just a menu. It includes information about the ingredients that are used, what's in season, the calorie and micronutrient amounts per meal etc.

But it's not just school. You can pick up food information at such places as supermarkets, at the town / city hall, in free magazines and food events. There are even food related museums, the photo in this post was taken at one such museum. 

There is even a day for Food Education in Japan, 12 of them actually - one every day of the month. That is the 19th of each month. The 19th was chosen for Food Education Day 食育の日 (shoku-iku no hi) because "19" can be read as "iku" as in the iku "育" of shoku-iku.