Eating Meat Was Banned in Japan for Centuries

https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/beefeater

There's also this urban myth that went around in the 1980s while Japan was negotiating beef exports with the Beef Caucus in the USA. Basically, Japan put forward the reasoning that their intestines are longer and therefore meat does not sit well with us, leading to colon cancer, and the line of thinking goes on and on. My Japanese mother even explained this to me as a child when I developed an appetite for eating ridiculously large In-N-Out burgers.

https://apnews.com/article/8fff51f61de3400636ec9af70a2680d8

I still see articles frequently suggesting that the Western diet is inherently bad for Asians and leads to colon cancer.

Red meat's one thing, but beef means more McDonalds and more McDonalds means more international relations. Beef export is the reason why razing rainforests and violating indigenous lands is profitable.

Every import of beef means extended trade relations with Australia or USA or whoever's selling it. I believe China is set up for the next 60 years to import beef from the USA.

> Even before Buddhism, meat wasn’t an essential part of the Japanese diet.

Seems like it was essential and desired, but people couldn't get as much of it as they wanted because of the lack of resources. If meat wasn't essential, it wouldn't take a decree from the emperor along with religious edicts to "ban meat".

Also, the ban didn't mean much as meat was consumed regardless.

"Plus, the Japanese aristocracy never completely gave up the practice. There are records of taxes paid and gifts sent to emperors in the form of pork, beef, and even milk. Meat was still taboo among the upper classes, but it was often treated as a special food with medicinal properties. (Even Buddhist monks could occasionally consume meat on doctor’s orders.) In the 18th century, the Hikone Clan sent their annual gift of beef pickled in sake to the shogun in packages labeled as medicine. Birds were more acceptable as foodstuff than mammals, and dolphin and whale was frequently eaten, as they were considered fish."

If I recall, the japanese, particularly the elites, simply bypassed the ban by labeling land animals like pigs - land whales or claiming the meat as medicine.

Also, as the article noted, the "banning of the meat" simply weakened the japanese people ( especially the lower class ) physically and mentally. It stunted people's physical and mental development and probably made it easier for the elites to control. But in the long term, it left them too weak to defend themselves from meat eaters.

(the author also writes about exceptions, but they merely prove the rule, so don't challenge the idea of a "ban" -- I just don't understand what is banned).