Ever since 1954, kyushoku (school lunch) has been an official part of the Japanese school curriculum. Over the years, the laws and menu items have changed, from adding the role of a nutritionist to including rice. Get an inside look into how the Japanese school lunch is made and what food education looks like in one of Japan’s public elementary schools.
Special thanks to Umejima Elementary School in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, that let me film over two days. You can see their school lunch menu at http://www.adachi.ed.jp/adaume/kyusyokulist.html.
SUBTITLES!
I have two English versions. The regular “English” only translates the Japanese portions. The “English UK” subtitles have captions for the entire video. If you don’t know how to change your subtitle settings, check out https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/100078.
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What’s school lunch like where you’re from?
Additional sources of information for the video are:
- School Lunch Program in Japan – https://www.nier.go.jp/English/educationjapan/pdf/201303SLP.pdf
- Museum of MEXT – http://www.mext.go.jp/en/about/museumofmext/index.htm
- On Japan’s school lunch menu: A healthy meal, made from scratch – Washington Post – https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/on-japans-school-lunch-menu-a-healthy-meal-made-from-scratch/2013/01/26/5f31d208-63a2-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html?utm_term=.7337c5575b75
- Hayato Ikeda By Koch, Eric / Anefo – [1] Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANeFo), 1945-1989, bekijk toegang 2.24.01.03, Bestanddeelnummer 914-5294, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36734208
- San Francisco Peace Treaty https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/takeshima/g_sfjoyaku.html
- Peace Works http://peaceworks.afsc.org/world-war-ii-and-its-aftermath
- Tanabata By ★Kumiko★ from Tokyo, Japan – 七夕, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49990199
- Household income by wards in Tokhyo – http://nbakki.hatenablog.com/entry/Household_Income_byWards_Tokyo_23_Wards_2013
- Japan: Governance and Accountability http://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/japan-overview/japan-system-and-school-organization/
- Japan Might Be What Equality in Education Looks Like – https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/08/japan-equal-education-school-cost/535611/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/08/japan-equal-education-school-cost/535611/
- School lunch program for health promotion among children in Japan – http://www.apjcn.org/update/pdf/2012/1/155-158/155.pdf