The Japanese Table / Changing habits hurt domestic demand for rice
By Ryo Kato / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
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This series discusses the present and future of washoku traditional Japanese cuisine. In this installment, we investigate the present situation at the dining table.
“White rice doesn’t have much flavor. I hardly even eat it — I prefer to eat many side dishes.”
Such were the sentiments of a 31-year-old female company employee in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, who had eaten the side dishes in a bento she had bought for lunch. She ate a little of the untouched rice after adding salt.
In her childhood, the woman was pushed to eat the white rice provided in school lunches, although she doesn’t recall ever being scolded at home for not eating it.
“Sometimes it’s a problem when I have a meal with business clients,” she said. “I worry what others might think of a Japanese person who doesn’t like rice. But I just don’t like it.”
A 32-year-old female company employee in Hino, Tokyo, is worried about her 4-year-old son, who does not eat much rice. He says he likes it, but he eats the side dishes first.
Her son eats rice and side dishes alternately only when he is told to do so, but goes back to consuming only the side dishes when his mother isn’t looking. (213 words)
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