bossel said:Could you give some source? I have some serious doubts that the whole of Japan was (even close to) a vegetarian society.
I am not saying Japanese food culture was complete vegan one.
In 675, the Emperor Tenmu announced the first meat eating regulation as described in Nihonshoki. And the Court was said to repeat the regulations after the first one, so Japanese did eat meat. It might be mere geographical factor that enabled Japanese to intake protein through fish. It all depends upon the definition of vegitarians.
In 1872, the Emperor Meiji himself encouraged Japanese to eat meat. There were a lot of funny episodes, say, some Japanese were a bit too awkward to eat beef, and they covered the Buddhist altars with white clothes when they ate beef for the first time for fear that their ancesters should get angry to see them eat beef.
In the context of dog meat, it was by the Western influence that Japanese quit it after the Meiji.