| Origins—The
“eating of meat from four-legged animals was more
or less prohibited in Japan for more than a thousand years
prior to 1868,” primarily due to Buddhist influences
and the protection of draught animals (Longworth 1983:1-2).
Beef eating was a rarity and was primarily limited to
the occasional consumption of culled draught animals.
Beef consumption resumed in Japan as of the Meiji Restoration
in 1868 (Kerr et al. 1994:17). Restaurants became popular.
These included the first Western style restaurant on the
Ginza that “pioneered hayashi raisu" (beef
hash and rice) in 1868 (Ashkenazi and Jacob 2000:120).
Feeding cattle for meat consumption did not begin until
after the mechanization of agriculture in the 1950s,
and only since 1961 has the Japanese government encouraged
the development and modernization of domestic livestock
farms (Longworth 1983: xxiv,2). Holstein dairy steer
feeding for beef developed in Japan in the 1970s, as
a response to a growing economy and increased demand
for beef. The per capita consumption of meat rose from
5.0 kg in 1960 to 22.5 kg in 1980 (Longworth 1983:3).
Beef consumption did not rise as quickly as that of
the other meats, probably due to two factors: domestic
expansion of beef production in Japan was slow to develop
and “beef imports have been tightly controlled”
(Longworth 1983:5-6). An additional factor may have
been price. Beef, chicken, and pork were all about the
same price in 1960. By the 1980s, the retail price of
beef was much higher than that of the other two meats.
|
Japan did not begin importing beef in significant
quantities until 1957. The imported beef market, which
the United States and Australia dominate, has grown incrementally
over the last forty years. Figures from the Japanese Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery for the late 1990s
show that 70 percent of the Japanese beef supply was imported.
Much of the imported beef does not end up on the Japanese
consumer’s table at home. Purchases by the average
household include only 33 percent imported beef, by retail
weight (Peterson 2002:2-3). Imported beef is often eaten
at family and fast food restaurants such as McDonalds,
which imports beef from Australia (Peterson 2002:15). |
