Advancing Food Sovereignty or Nostalgia: The Construction of Japanese Diets in the National Shokuiku Policy

Food sovereignty is a trans-national movement that asserts the right of people to govern their own food system as an alternative to neoliberal food policies. In 2005, the Japanese government introduced the Basic Law of Shokuiku (food and nutrition education) to promote national food self-sufficiency, improve public health, and preserve local culinary culture through domestic food consumption. This paper argues that the campaign attempts to advance both governmental and public interests in food sovereignty by constructing common images of Japanese diets and nostalgia for rural agriculture; along the way it attempts to increase a sense of solidarity between urban consumers and rural producers. Nevertheless, the campaign focuses on consumer's food literacy, thus framing food sovereignty as responsibilities of people, and diverts public attention from structural issues embedded within the nation's food system, including national dependence on other countries for food security, as well as the marginal economic status of rural agriculture. Simultaneously, the feeling of nostalgia for rural agriculture remains, expanding an imaginary of food sovereignty among some urban consumers. Drawing on an investigation of policy discourses and in-depth interviews with young adult consumers in urban Japan, this paper examines how the notion of food sovereignty and Japanese diets have been constructed and advanced through the nationwide Shokuiku campaign. The decade-long campaign has evolved to become an agent of social control of urban consumer food consumption rather than helping consumers to play a role in establishing a system underpinned by food sovereignty as an alternative to the industrial present.