What Makes Japan's School Lunch System The Best

Often I ask myself this question, "Am I a sucker for all things Japanese?" and then I take a look at the way Japan does things concerning food especially, and I ask myself another question, "Why isn't everyone?".

Throughout my articles, I have written about Japan. Its standards and control of quality in everything surprise me. This kind of regulation and standardization sets Japanese products and systems apart from the rest; in today's case, it's in the lunch boxes of our little people. My experience with school lunch is my mother's dabba. I had never had the option to experience food offered by my school nor did they have the facilities to do so. Fortunately?...who knows? So, my first-hand experience with Indian school lunches is next to zero, but we will talk about that later.

In Japan, school lunches are called "Kyushoku", and lunch break is seen as more than just leisure time. They use this period to educate students about handling food, sanitation, coordination, and team building. Sounds exhausting? Actually, on the contrary, it is a lot more fun and the kids enjoy themselves while doing it, and that too with pride.

After World War II, the government of Japan decided to release a School Lunch Act in 1954 which covered a wide variety of things such as encouraging correct understanding of food and providing desirable eating habits, boosting health through appropriate eating, enriching school life, etc. This system and practices introduced under this act ensure that a child gets fed well-balanced meals at least once per day irrespective of their parental income.

In this system, each child from elementary school to junior high and high school is kept on a rotating lunch duty. The child is given the responsibilities of a leader who manages the service of lunch to the classroom. (The students eat in the classroom btw) They wear proper protective gear such as an apron, cap and gloves and push the carts containing food and other necessary items to their classrooms. The teachers are told not to help the students and let them learn on their own in the process. They are also allowed to control their portion sizes and are encouraged to finish how much ever they take on their plate.

There are many videos of Japanese school lunch service and preparation online, but the one I came across was the video by Food Insider, "How a Japanese MegaKitchen Prepares Thousands of School Lunches Every Day". The Musashino City School Lunch & Dietary Education Promotion Foundation (that was a mouthful) in Japan prepares 3000 school meals every day. I would highly recommend you watch the video below and admire the level of detail and attention paid by these workers to every aspect of the process. My only issue with this organisation is that they need a smaller name or an acronym like...MCSLDEPF (Macksledepuf....I only laugh at my jokes)

A typical Japanese lunch consists of rice as the main carbohydrate more than bread or noodles (Hence my love for Japan), a soup consisting of a lot of vegetables, fish or other forms of protein, and milk cartons. They are also given fresh fruits along with their meals, and the teacher (Sensei) eats with them in the classroom. After they are done eating, they thank the students who served them, clean up their tables and wash utensils and other equipment. The milk cartons are recyclable and are washed and dried by the student responsible for returning them.

There is something inherently cute about children acting like grownups and doing things trivial things better than grown adults. Japan's Management style, popularly known as Total Quality Management, is very evident in this aspect and it teaches us how it proved effective in training kids to become responsible and well-rounded individuals.

This system should be adopted worldwide to some extent because oftentimes the people who are supposed to be fed the best are fed the worst. In countries such as the USA, there is a requirement for this kind of practice. Well, anyway...

That's it for this time.

See you next week!