Eighth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Japan is perhaps the first country that institutionalized the Basic Law on Food Education in 2005, locally called as “Shokuiku.” Since its inception, a growing number of studies in various disciplines have been carried out to assess its potential. However, its interdisciplinary nature has constantly challenged Japanese researchers to articulate its general achievements, benefits of interdisciplinary research, and potential disciplinary boundaries. Thus, to address this challenge, a systematic review of food education was conducted in this research. The data for the analysis were extracted from the studies published in Japanese and English mostly during the 2004-2017 period whose content mainly deals with “food education” (or Shokuiku) (n=535), effectively complemented with other relevant studies published in Japanese, English, and French. The findings relate to holistically identifying achievements and limitations of food education in Japan in medical sciences (including public health) (44% of the total number of the reviewed studies), life sciences (18%), and agricultural economics (16%), food and agricultural sciences (9%), and education/pedagogy (8%), elucidating power relationships across disciplines (notably, the dominance of medical and nutritional sciences) as well as re-orientating the interdisciplinary research on food education in Japan.