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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://aboutj
by odomojuli 6y ago
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 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 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.
- sdrothrock 6y agoThe long intestine bit is a common piece of nihonijinron. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron
- sn41 6y agoDo you know if some of these ideas came from India? Many of ancient Japanese customs were influenced by Buddhism. These arguments are also common among Indians, about 40 percent of whom are vegetarians. On a related note, /diagnosed/ colon cancer is relatively rare in India (1) whereas diabetes and diseases like osteoporosis are common. (1)https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/Colorectal%2520Cancer_0.pdf https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/Colo...
- odomojuli 6y agoThe ethnic untouchable caste burakumin who would work with cattle and leather were discriminated by almost every Buddhist sect. I don't think most of the spirit of the religion comes from India directly. There's plenty of Sanskrit in the language but most ideas matriculated through Korean and Chinese schools of thought is my understanding.
- sn41 6y agoI was specifically talking about vegetarianism. It started very prominently in India due to the Buddhist and Jain influence, at least since 300 BC. The most famous early Indian text which promotes vegetarianism is Thirukkural (1), which is suspected to be a Jain work. It was news to me that vegetarianism did make its way to the far east along with other Buddhist teachings. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirukku%E1%B9%9Fa%E1%B8%B7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirukku%E1%B9%9Fa%E1%B8%B7
- jagannathtech 6y agoVegetarianism originates in the Vedas themselves. This trope that bhuddism/Jainism influenced vegetarianism is a concotion by colonial historians. Same for the thirukkural, it is a Hindu text adhering to the Hindu philosophical dharma+artha+kama but the history polluted by colonial historians. Wikipedia is a bad place for authentic hindu information. It is pretty much hijacked by vested interests.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoI don't know about intestine length, but eating a lot of red, and especially processed meat is indeed linked to colorectal cancer, presumably for all human beings : https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-on-the-carcinogenicity-of-the-consumption-of-red-meat-and-processed-meat https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-on-the-carcinog...