How Japan fell out of love with rice

thomas · 10 Jul 2023

The Guardian on why Japanese rice consumption has been plunging for decades.

According to the agriculture ministry, annual rice consumption in Japan peaked in 1962, when every person ate an average of 118kg, or just over five average-sized bowls a day. By 2020, per-capita consumption had more than halved to just under 51kg. And in 2011, Japanese households spent more on bread than rice for the first time.

According to a recent survey by the rice distributor Makino, 84.8% of respondents said that they ate rice every day, but 68.1% said they only ate it once a day, with just 16.7% preferring it for all three meals. "It's much easier to have bread, especially in mornings," says Nanami Mochida, a schoolteacher near Tokyo and mother of a teenage daughter. "Preparing a Japanese-style breakfast takes more time," she adds. "You need to rinse the rice first, then it can take 30 minutes to an hour to cook, even with a rice cooker."

‘Bread is much easier’: how Japan fell out of love with rice

The traditional staple is losing the battle with more convenient and cheaper alternative foods

www.theguardian.com

mdchachi · 10 Jul 2023

But nobody cooks rice for breakfast. They use the leftover rice from the previous night. That's even faster than toast.

thomas · 10 Jul 2023

mdchachi said:
But nobody cooks rice for breakfast. They use the leftover rice from the previous night. That's even faster than toast.

Oh, but most rice cookers have timers. My wife cooks rice for breakfast whenever we run out of bread.

mdchachi · 10 Jul 2023

thomas said:
Oh, but most rice cookers have timers. My wife cooks rice for breakfast whenever we run out of bread.

On one of my trips to Japan I had to carry back a space age rice cooker back home. It sucks out all the air and cooks the rice in a vacuum and the keep warm mode is the same thing. It keeps cooked rice warm and fresh for 24 hours at least.
I also brought back a fancy bread maker too. We get a lot of use out of both appliances.

Master of Time · 11 Jul 2023

Bread is easier???? Is that just an attempt to create a controvery where there is none???

I have a bread maker and a rice cooker. I almost never make bread. It takes over 3 hours! I often make pizza dough though...that takes about 1 hour and a half...but then I need about 40 minutes from there to actually make a pizza unless I am right on top of heating the oven while the dough is being made.

Rice though? Its a snap! I have rice every day. Rinse in a colander, rinse again in the cooker bowl wait about 40 minutes and blam....fresh rice. And I usually cook two cups which can last me for 3 days outside of summer...left in the rice cooker....powered off...then reheated in the microwave. (in summer the rice will begin to rot in one day so it goes in the fridge).
What to do with the rice? Well mostly I get some pickled food from jars in the fridge....rakyou, renkon, kimchi, olives....some fresh lettuce, basil, and cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse, and something from a can......thai chicken or saba. Its a snap!

Bread? If you don't make bread yourself...then....go to a bread shop? I suppose that is easy in a way...but its not cooking is it? And you gotta go buy it.

So.....rubbish factory bread full of preservatives and sugar? Yeah. That's easy. Sure.

mdchachi · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
Bread is easier???? Is that just an attempt to create a controvery where there is none???

I have a bread maker and a rice cooker. I almost never make bread. It takes over 3 hours! I often make pizza dough though...that takes about 1 hour and a half...but then I need about 40 minutes from there to actually make a pizza unless I am right on top of heating the oven while the dough is being made.

Rice though? Its a snap! I have rice every day. Rinse in a colander, rinse again in the cooker bowl wait about 40 minutes and blam....fresh rice. And I usually cook two cups which can last me for 3 days outside of summer...left in the rice cooker....powered off...then reheated in the microwave. (in summer the rice will begin to rot in one day so it goes in the fridge).
What to do with the rice? Well mostly I get some pickled food from jars in the fridge....rakyou, renkon, kimchi, olives....some fresh lettuce, basil, and cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse, and something from a can......thai chicken or saba. Its a snap!

Bread? If you don't make bread yourself...then....go to a bread shop? I suppose that is easy in a way...but its not cooking is it? And you gotta go buy it.

So.....rubbish factory bread full of preservatives and sugar? Yeah. That's easy. Sure.

I assume he meant purchased bread. If I still lived in Japan I'd be eating a lot of bread/pastries. I love Japanese bakeries. Not the konbini crap of course.

Petaris · 11 Jul 2023

mdchachi said:
I assume he meant purchased bread. If I still lived in Japan I'd be eating a lot of bread/pastries. I love Japanese bakeries. Not the konbini crap of course.

View attachment 104545

There is one a couple of towns over from my MIL's place called Capital Bakery that is really good. Its way too easy to spend a lot of money there.

Master of Time · 11 Jul 2023

mdchachi said:
If I still lived in Japan I'd be eating a lot of bread/pastries. I love Japanese bakeries.

I believe a few are on par with French bakeries.....a few.

I am amazed at how many bakeries Japan has, even in rural areas. I don't remember seeing any in America.

I wonder how French people would rate Japanese bakeries? I also wonder about the quality of the flour they use. I think they are good....but then....I am American. I would defer to just about anybody on this point.

mdchachi · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
I am amazed at how many bakeries Japan has, even in rural areas. I don't remember seeing any in America.

Coming from immigrant stock we never ate supermarket bread. Always went to bakeries. No Wonder Bread for us.
But the sweets are all terribly sugar laden and they didn't have the ham and cheese or sausage pan like in Japan.
And certainly nothing with little kitty or piggy faces.

Lothor · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
Bread is easier???? Is that just an attempt to create a controvery where there is none???

I have a bread maker and a rice cooker. I almost never make bread. It takes over 3 hours! I often make pizza dough though...that takes about 1 hour and a half...but then I need about 40 minutes from there to actually make a pizza unless I am right on top of heating the oven while the dough is being made.

Rice though? Its a snap! I have rice every day. Rinse in a colander, rinse again in the cooker bowl wait about 40 minutes and blam....fresh rice. And I usually cook two cups which can last me for 3 days outside of summer...left in the rice cooker....powered off...then reheated in the microwave. (in summer the rice will begin to rot in one day so it goes in the fridge).
What to do with the rice? Well mostly I get some pickled food from jars in the fridge....rakyou, renkon, kimchi, olives....some fresh lettuce, basil, and cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse, and something from a can......thai chicken or saba. Its a snap!

Bread? If you don't make bread yourself...then....go to a bread shop? I suppose that is easy in a way...but its not cooking is it? And you gotta go buy it.

So.....rubbish factory bread full of preservatives and sugar? Yeah. That's easy. Sure.

Bread takes me 2 minutes or 5 hours depending on how you time it. It takes 2 minutes to put all the ingredients in the breadmaker, and the 5 hours is how long it takes the breadmaker to turn it into bread overnight. Supermarket bread in Japan is rubbish. Yamazaki Pan, which Japanese people have boasted about to me, is on a par with the cheapest supermarket bread in the UK.

Master of Time · 11 Jul 2023

Lothor said:
Bread takes me 2 minutes or 5 hours depending on how you time it.

There are breads that can be made in about 20 minutes, but I have only ever seen them on Youtube! You just head them in a frying pan....seems similar to a pancake....somewhere between fully risen bread and nan bread I guess. But still I think...not easier than rice made with a rice cooker.

But, as we have been talking about, buying is easier than making and that is what must have been meant.

Now I am wondering if a shop that specializes in cooked rice would do business....cause its easier?

Aside, its a funny thing....I still have a few students who when asked what their favorite food is they say "rice". It never ceases to amaze me, but that's their story and they stick to it. (Oh dear, I seem to have made a pun)

Petaris · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
I believe a few are on par with French bakeries.....a few.

I am amazed at how many bakeries Japan has, even in rural areas. I don't remember seeing any in America.

I wonder how French people would rate Japanese bakeries? I also wonder about the quality of the flour they use. I think they are good....but then....I am American. I would defer to just about anybody on this point.

When I was in high school there was a bakery in the small town we lived near. It had been run by the same couple for 60 years, was cheap, and the quality and flavor was amazing. The started at before 4 AM and opened at 5 AM with everything warm and fresh out of the oven. Sadly when they retired and sold it the new owners decided it needed to "get with the times" and completely ruined it. They didn't even start baking until 8 AM and didn't open until 9 AM and the assortments, quality, and taste were all poor. They lasted less than a year, after which it traded hands a few more times in quick succession.

I now live in a major city and you would think that you could find those good old bakeries here but you can't. All you can find is new "designer" bakeries that want $10 for a "designer" cupcake that looks bizzare and tastes horrible.

Petaris · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
There are breads that can be made in about 20 minutes, but I have only ever seen them on Youtube! You just head them in a frying pan....seems similar to a pancake....somewhere between fully risen bread and nan bread I guess. But still I think...not easier than rice made with a rice cooker.

But, as we have been talking about, buying is easier than making and that is what must have been meant.

Now I am wondering if a shop that specializes in cooked rice would do business....cause its easier?

Aside, its a funny thing....I still have a few students who when asked what their favorite food is they say "rice". It never ceases to amaze me, but that's their story and they stick to it. (Oh dear, I seem to have made a pun)

Irish soda bread is fast and easy like that. Maybe that is what you are thinking of? You make it in a cast iron skillet, though you do bake it in the oven.
Example: Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread

Generally its yeast breads that are the ones that take the most time as they require kneading and rise time.

musicisgood · 11 Jul 2023

Why my travels here but then last couple weeks and and this island here I've noticed two things regarding bread and rice they elderly people they will have a treat of bread some type of bread for lunch but it's still very traditional very very traditional to have miso soup fish and Rice and a little kimchi or whatever it's called for breakfast
In the countryside I mean really countryside around the ocean area the inner part I'm not too for sure but it's really fish in the morning miso soup and rice now the children they may want bread and what they call morning Pizza episode it's a very big toss up but from what I've just recently experienced it's been rice in the morning.

Master of Time · 11 Jul 2023

Petaris said:
Maybe that is what you are thinking of?

I was thinking of this...but I was sure there were similar others. Thanks for the info!

Turkish bread

mdchachi · 11 Jul 2023

Master of Time said:
Now I am wondering if a shop that specializes in cooked rice would do business....cause its easier?

You can already buy ready-to-eat vacuum packed rice in the supermarket so I think that niche is more or less filled.
I suppose a curry or donburi place could sell rice but if you're going to go to one of those places you may as well buy the complete meal.

musicisgood said:
it's really fish in the morning miso soup and rice

Reminds me of the first English-Japanese pun I ever learned.
What's fish every morning?
sakana my asa

How Japan fell out of love with rice

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‘Bread is much easier’: how Japan fell out of love with rice

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