There's this light fiction / short story by Kanagaki Robun called the Beefeater which I think is an appropriate companion piece to this article.

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.