JAPAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 May 1923, Page 4

JAPAN.

AS A MEAT-EATING COUNTRY

(By tt Sydney Visitor.)

One of the great changes that have taken place in Japan during the last few decades is the very large consumption of meat. Before 1870 meat eating wnsc practically unknown. As they still do in the country districts, everyone lived on fish and rice. The common word for lish in Japanese means literally "wlmt is eaten with sake or rice-wine.” so that even lish was hardly regarded as an everyday dish, but rather as a relish lor a symposium. The majority of the country people even now eat lisii hut rarely, and aic quite contented with rice, vegetables, and pickles. But modern life in the great cities is far mure strenuous than the quiet existence of feudal times, and the hosts of students, officials, and industrial workers of all kinds need more ■.(ban a vegetarian diet to keep fit and vigorous. Tims meat began to be eaten, and the taste for it has grown continually, so that in all big towns one may see everywhere what are called “beef shops” where heel is not only sold, but may be eaten cooked in Japanese style, in a room above the shop. In tlie largest towns and cities there arc plenty ot bcei restaurants only. but in the country meat shop and restaurant are usually combined. It is hardly our idea of a butcher's shop either, for all that is visible is a few small pieces of meat in a glass case. The Japanese way of cooking meat or fowl is. like most other things, quite their own. [or they cut it into small slices and put it into an iron pan over a charcoal brazier, or in the most up-to-date nstaurants an electric i no, add garlic and other vegetables and “soy or beau sauce and sugar, an] so fry it. The eaters sit round tie pan will) their chop-sticks aid pull it in* a- n is done and put in on men' pottos, in which a raw egg is often placed to coni it, and so into their mouths. I bis way of cooking it is very (i'leclai.e indeed, and is much favoured, not only by .Japanese, but also by Lite Europeans resident there. No doubt all Japanese would like to take this dish more often than they do, but tho cost is a distinct draw-hack. In Japan beef costs anywhere between 2s Gd and -Is a lb. and that pound is not as much as ours. So where wages and salaries are not high, and students everywhere are rather impecunious, or as they usually say “suiter iroiu anaemia of the pocket” they cannot eat meat very often. It is hardly a maltei of luxury, for Japanese food contains no fat, and it seems as though this wore necessary to ail those who go through the strenuous mill of their education system, a far more exacting one than anything wo have, including as it (I'.-cs European languages, history, mathematics, ami science, besides the Japanese language and literature and Cbine.-e classic”. It is a commonplace that the difficult.y ot these la.-t is as that ol many European languages pat tegetlior. and the number of students who break down under the task ol assimilating all tins on a vegetarian diet L i iiiisiderahle.

Nmv Japan cannot produie much moat ai any time, for the ox is too useful an animal to t ie farmer to be kille.l in la rue numbers, and moreover, the i-iiuul rv has no pasture. All must I.e used f.'u- rice anil vegelnbh-s. and I here is mine to spate lor other purposes. except it he the ever-present Hl,Hint;,ills, and so far no attempt has

been mad- t, use them, though f.ossi: !, i| might be in future. Sheep are unknown in Japan, and if von a-k ■ i ,lap:i:ie.-e if he has ever seen one. he may reply that he has never le u to th, Zeological Gardens. Mis-ionunes. I>\ the wav. often regret the difficulty iii ex plaining much of the Scriptures oi- the m count, siiii-e the ways of tho sloop nuil Jiopltords naiii rally mean nothing to folk only accustomed to i i: e held, and oxen. Those who have lasted mol toll say til .1 its odour is unpleasant. hut this was said of heel wle-ii it was lirst - conked, and in fact, the

younger generation who started to eat i. had ol ten lo cook il outside the house, sim-e the smell was intolerable to those brought up on the old '‘pare” food. No doubt this all seems l i-rv sail lo those who love vi getariani-m. and hate the devouring of the stalled ox, ami I do mu know that the pen| ft' of Japan themselves regard it as ideal. But they must compete 1 with line people if the \Vc>‘(. ad to do mil l to some ,-..i.;,i ~d ,p: i heir \ia\ >. temporary exp-.-ditient though this may perhaps l,e when viewed in the proper perspective. Bet here is Australia's opportunity. lor given the proper (old .storage there should he no limit to the amount cf I-tv. f and mutton that Japan would b ,y if it could lie landed there ai a conveniently low pri.—.Most of the Japanese cities started municipal markets to cope with the pmlHeering that inevitable at com panic'l thev.ar. m that l ie-re is a cist i Jetting agency already ninth-, i imagine that some of Ike objection to mutton is due to ilcoining from China where the pork act! miiUou i- apt lii taste at il led oil lish, and that fish not very fresh either. Pork is not popular in Japan. Only iis law price commend- it. except in tli“ form ol ham. when it is very welcome. Hum is manufactured in Japan, hut the difficulty of honing i; in the' hot. damp, long summer is somewhat against it. Australian butter seems not to have any very good icpunlion there, or tit any rale it inot in the same category with the -excel lent “hrurre ties pores trap isles,

which those diligent recluses manufacture. together with equally good “port du s'aiui” cheese in their monastery on the notriiern island of Hokkaido. But litis is probably because it is very ancient. by the time it gets to the consumer in the country, lor it is hai(d\ possible to keep it in decent condition if there is no proper told storage. 11 ’,L could he well packed and told in a livsh stale there should be a very good market, since the demand for butter i- always increasing, and the trappist lathers anil the lew other dailies cannot possibly iiioct il.