Eating Meat Was Banned in Japan for Centuries

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japan-meat-ban

by respinal • 6 years ago

37 10 6 years ago

_56593• 6 years ago

There's this light fiction / short story by Kanagaki Robun called the Beefeater which I think is an appropriate companion piece to this article.

https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/beefeater

There's also this urban myth that went around in the 1980s while Japan was negotiating beef exports with the Beef Caucus in the USA. Basically, Japan put forward the reasoning that their intestines are longer and therefore meat does not sit well with us, leading to colon cancer, and the line of thinking goes on and on. My Japanese mother even explained this to me as a child when I developed an appetite for eating ridiculously large In-N-Out burgers.

https://apnews.com/article/8fff51f61de3400636ec9af70a2680d8

I still see articles frequently suggesting that the Western diet is inherently bad for Asians and leads to colon cancer.

Red meat's one thing, but beef means more McDonalds and more McDonalds means more international relations. Beef export is the reason why razing rainforests and violating indigenous lands is profitable.

Every import of beef means extended trade relations with Australia or USA or whoever's selling it. I believe China is set up for the next 60 years to import beef from the USA.

sdrothrock• 6 years ago

The long intestine bit is a common piece of nihonijinron.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron

sn412• 6 years ago

Do you know if some of these ideas came from India? Many of ancient Japanese customs were influenced by Buddhism. These arguments are also common among Indians, about 40 percent of whom are vegetarians.

On a related note, /diagnosed/ colon cancer is relatively rare in India (1) whereas diabetes and diseases like osteoporosis are common.

(1)https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/Colo...

_56593• 6 years ago

The ethnic untouchable caste burakumin who would work with cattle and leather were discriminated by almost every Buddhist sect.

I don't think most of the spirit of the religion comes from India directly. There's plenty of Sanskrit in the language but most ideas matriculated through Korean and Chinese schools of thought is my understanding.

BlueTemplar• 6 years ago

I don't know about intestine length, but eating a lot of red, and especially processed meat is indeed linked to colorectal cancer, presumably for all human beings : https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-on-the-carcinog...

disown• 6 years ago

The headline says "meat was banned" but according to the article the eating of birds, fish, dolphins, whales, etc were not banned. Last I checked the birds, fish, dolphins, whales, etc are animals and meat is the flesh of animals.

Even before Buddhism, meat wasn’t an essential part of the Japanese diet.

Seems like it was essential and desired, but people couldn't get as much of it as they wanted because of the lack of resources. If meat wasn't essential, it wouldn't take a decree from the emperor along with religious edicts to "ban meat".

Also, the ban didn't mean much as meat was consumed regardless.

"Plus, the Japanese aristocracy never completely gave up the practice. There are records of taxes paid and gifts sent to emperors in the form of pork, beef, and even milk. Meat was still taboo among the upper classes, but it was often treated as a special food with medicinal properties. (Even Buddhist monks could occasionally consume meat on doctor’s orders.) In the 18th century, the Hikone Clan sent their annual gift of beef pickled in sake to the shogun in packages labeled as medicine. Birds were more acceptable as foodstuff than mammals, and dolphin and whale was frequently eaten, as they were considered fish."

If I recall, the japanese, particularly the elites, simply bypassed the ban by labeling land animals like pigs - land whales or claiming the meat as medicine.

Also, as the article noted, the "banning of the meat" simply weakened the japanese people ( especially the lower class ) physically and mentally. It stunted people's physical and mental development and probably made it easier for the elites to control. But in the long term, it left them too weak to defend themselves from meat eaters.

gumby• 6 years ago

This article is confusing as it says "meat" is banned yet describes eating fish and crustaceans. Does the author mean mammals, or all warm blooded animals, or simply land animals?

(the author also writes about exceptions, but they merely prove the rule, so don't challenge the idea of a "ban" -- I just don't understand what is banned).

_56593• 6 years ago

Meat is considered separate from fish in the language.

For the most part, 肉 (niku: meat) refers to mostly land animals and in context, the ban was to discourage the consumption of domesticated animals and game which would invite pestilence and strain on limited space for agriculture. Eating meat in Japan is still kind of impractical, there just isn't that much space, and it pollutes a lot. Lookup how much water, alfalfa, acreage and methane output is required just to breed a single cow.

Fun fact, English and Latin is kind of similar in the meanings of 'meat' and 'carne' with regards to religious diet.

Eating Meat Was Banned in Japan for Centuries

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