Forum - View topicAnswerman - Are There Any Vegetarians In Japan?
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 943 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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There is that, but it sounds like while pieces of meat are relatively expensive, so out of reach of the impoverished, animal-derived products are less expensive and all over the place to the point where it's difficult to avoid them.
In an ideal world, "they don't eat these things, no skin off my nose" would be the end of it, but we do not live in an ideal world. There are vegetarians and vegans who seem to make it their goal in life to make sure everyone else follows their ideals too. And even if it were just pestering other people to not eat any meat, it still wouldn't be too harmful. There are those who enforce a vegan diet on their children, for example. A vegan diet being good enough in adult life is one thing, but it's rather less certain that there's no harm to a vegan diet on children in the earliest stages of development. Also people trying to make their carnivorous pets eat vegan. It is worth noting that people who take it that far would be at the fringe, and certainly shouldn't be taken to represent vegans and vegetarians as a whole. All that aside, you're right in that it really doesn't matter what their reasoning and whether it makes any sense to me, so long as I respect their choice. How much they in turn respect others' preference for omnivorous diets is a debate probably best not had. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2458 |
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While this is true, there are also many vegetarians who generally keep quiet about their dietary choice unless someone explicitly inquires. It's also worth noting that the complaints about vegetarians in this thread were completely unmotivated by any comparable posts by zealous vegetarians, which makes this explanation of those posts rather ironic.  The mods did ask us not to turn this into a thread about this sort've issue though, so I'll quickly chide myself and make this my only input into it.
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Banken
Posts: 1281 |
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Japan is NOT a country that is friendly to people with dietary restrictions in general.
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pluvia33
 Posts: 196 Location: Dayton, OH, USA |
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Actually, your statement is also a bit of an oversimplification of the topic. Now it would be one thing if all cattle was produced on pasture with a 100% grass diet, but that is not the case. While "grass-fed beef" is becoming something of a food buzz-word, it's not the norm. Although I don't know the numbers off hand and can't properly research it right now, I'd assume that the vast majority of the beef we consume (like what ends up in fast food and most of the stuff at the super market) comes from grain-fed cattle. The corn and other grains that go into the feed for factory raised beef has to be farmed, causing more damage than if that farming was used to just feed humans. I'm not trying to soapbox; just providing a counter argument. Although I was a vegetarian in the past and am considering going vegan sometime in the near future, I'm currently just a plain old boring omnivore. Interesting article, though. Even if I do go vegan eventually, I'm pretty sure I'd take a "break" from the diet if I were ever able to visit Japan (or just about any foreign land for that matter). That might seem a bit hypocritical, but since I wouldn't have any major health reasons for the diet change (such as allergies or intolerances) I'd feel that "when in Rome" would trump my personal diet choice. I mean, that doesn't mean I'd have a free-for-all and binge on animal product, but I wouldn't shy away and refuse foreign specialty dishes either. |
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svines85
 Posts: 42 |
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Yes, very interesting, thanks
And, though I'm not trying to "soapbox" against vegetarianism, yeah, this doesn't surprise me, nor would it surprise me if this was true throughout most of the rest of the world. People are, by nature, omnivores. Purposely avoiding some entire group of food/s source..... for some reason other than "I just don't like brussels sprouts/mutton/cold pizza".........well, yeah, it's just an aberration from the norm. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3532 Location: Finland |
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In case of Japan there is a vegan protein source with complete profile that should be relatively easy to obtain, tofu, unless you're allergic to soy beans. If we really want to up the efficiency of protein production, utilizing only a fraction of land area, and having minimal methane emissions and overall environmental impact, then we should switch from traditional meat production to insect farming. Admittedly, that might probably take a few generations to pick up steam. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The Mediterranean countries are quite intriguing, inasmuch as their famous cuisines contain a great many vegetarian dishes despite vegetarianism having less of a foothold than in the anglosphere. Certainly, the meat substitutes with which I am familiar are difficult to come across in such lands. I once discovered that it is easier to find vegetable-fed meat sausages in France than vegetarian sausages. |
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MajinAkuma
 Posts: 1199 |
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But that guy is Egyptian, not Japanese. |
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Blue21
Posts: 244 |
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One would think that with such a big Buddhist population, vegetarianism would be more of a thing.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16961 |
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There is a vast difference between discussing a topic providing evidence, opinions, pros/cons, etc and simply getting up on your box and shouting as loud as you can over and over so people will hear you. One fosters worthwhile discussion, the other does not. As my colleague alluded to the post in question was also rude and insulting towards people as well. That alone is enough to warrant a post being removed/edited as that is rule #1 here, be civil. Add in that the post came after another mod had already said to stop that specific behavior, and the post was almost a carbon copy of the rude post that fostered the first warning to begin with, and you have why I removed it. Your concern is appreciated however. If you ever have a question as to why a mod removed/edited a post please feel free to PM that mod and ask. We certainly would be happy to explain our action to aleviate any confusion.
You should read dormcat's post from page 2 where he responded to pretty much the same comment. He is Asian btw, and lives in Asia too!, just so that's clear in case it wasn't before heh. Personally I say eat what ya want or don't want. Provided it's legal, so no eating people. Yet. |
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Inu-Yasha
 Posts: 373 Location: Quad Cities, Iowa |
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I've always wondered how expensive food and drinks are in Japan.
Basically, is food taxed in japan? And if so how much? |
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2458 |
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As someone with severe fish allergies (anaphylaxis and all that excitement), I wonder how that's handled in Japan? I suppose the obvious answer is "very carefully," but the Answerman article's allusion to fish flakes appearing unexpectedly in meals served to vegetarian tourists make me wonder. Would a highly allergic native Japanese person have a relatively easy time ensuring no fish flakes end up in their food while dining out?
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svines85
Posts: 42 |
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Soylent Green is people!! Sorry, I couldn't resist that one..... it was just hanging there, begging to be swatted 
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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There is a running joke in The Goode Family where, because the entire household is vegan, they force a vegan diet on their dog, which gives him health problems and causes him to secretly kill squirrels, other people's pets, and pigeons out of desperation. While I HAVE seen households like this, in most cases it's ignorance and not the belief that all animals can go vegan. Most vegetarians and vegans, I would hope, are open-minded enough to accept that other animals have different digestive systems than humans and either allow them to eat the meat that'd be healthy for them or choose not to have a carnivorous pet in the first place.
Unless you're hyperallergic, a person can overcome allergies, at least for a good deal of their lives, by taking in small amounts of that food and eating more and more of it until the adverse reactions become unnoticeable or at least bearable. (Not all humans can do this, but my sister overcame her allergies to eggs and peanuts in this way. As our culture's cuisine uses eggs and peanuts in a LOT of dishes, this was necessary for her to function.) Humans are born unable to take in cow milk, for instance, but can do so because they drink enough of it that human digestive systems create ways of dealing with the lactose in there. The people who are lactose intolerant were never able to complete this process. Their digestive systems wouldn't allow them to. Hence, I would guess in Japan, either people with fish allergies are rare due to them dying out, or they are gradually eased into the allergy. Then again, Japanese culture also shuns people who, for whatever reason, are unable to fit in with the rest of society. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I've been keeping kosher my whole life, and more recently started what I call a "semi- pescatarian" diet--I rarely eat mammal meat or fowl, but I regularly eat fish, eggs & dairy. In some senses, pescatarianism is just a natural extension of keeping kosher--I was already avoiding most meats and shellfish. Sometimes they conflict, because one food restriction is hard enough already. Right now, kosher is my priority, so if an airline only offers meat-based kosher meals, I'll choose that. Looking into what (very few) food options I'd have if I ever realize my dream of visiting Japan, most are meat-based. Although there is one kosher-certified, vegetarian food stand in Tokyo, King Falafel! Hooray for deep fried chickpea patties! But all food restrictions are hard, especially if you keep more than one. I'm sure people with various food allergies, gluten sensitivities, monosodium
glutamate sensitivities, etc, have an even harder time finding food around the world.
That surprises me. If there is one thing Paris has, it's a variety of food! I don't know when your friend went, but according to this article, as of April 2016 there were approximately 290 vegetarian restaurants in Paris. Paris has a big kosher-keeping community, too, and many have pareve (neutral) foods--the dairy restaurants would have no meat or fowl (bird meat) at all, but would have dairy, eggs & sometimes fish in their dishes. The fish would be very easy to avoid, and cheese/milk would probably be, too (and the cheese would probably be much less likely to use animal based rennet than at the average restaurant, if that's a concern). I've heard of bakeries and chocolate shops that don't use dairy, as well. If there are no other options, there's always that Soylent stuff--supposedly, it's vegan, kosher, and contains all the nutrition an adult needs so that s/he doesn't have to actually eat anything else. Like a baby formula for adults! |
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