Lecture by Yoshihiro Murata, third-generation owner of the Kyoto restaurant “Kikunoi” and honorary chairman of the Japan Culinary Academy

Murata also referred to the “McGovern Report,” published in 1977 by George S. McGovern, chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs.

This report evaluates the diet of Japanese people during the Genroku era as an ideal dietary model. It consisted of a meal of one soup and three dishes, with unrefined grains as the staple food, and incorporating fish, beans, vegetables, and seaweed.

“This is the true essence of Japanese cuisine.”

He stated that food preferences are formed by education, not genetics, and that it is important to bring traditional Japanese food culture back to the dinner table.

At the same time, he also sounded the alarm about Japan’s current food self-sufficiency rate, which remains at only about 40%.