Why I Chose Food Over Medicine
I decided to become a registered dietitian when I was in high school.
At the time, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help people get better. But a teacher changed the way I thought about that.
She told me: medicine treats people after they get sick. Food can stop them from getting sick in the first place.
That idea never left me.
Japan's healthcare system is under enormous pressure from lifestyle diseases - diabetes, hypertension, heart disease - conditions that are largely preventable, and that consume a significant share of the country's medical resources and tax spending. I kept asking myself: where is the most effective place to intervene? Where can one person make the biggest difference?
The answer, I came to believe, was childhood. Specifically, the school lunch table.
A child who learns to eat well - who grows up understanding what food does for their body, who develops a broad palate and a healthy relationship with eating - is far less likely to become a patient later in life. The job of a school nutrition teacher is to make that happen, one meal at a time, for hundreds of children, every day.
That's why I chose this path. Not because I gave up on helping people - but because I found a way to help them earlier.
What Is Kyushoku?
If you've ever seen a photo of a Japanese school lunch and thought "wait - kids actually eat that?", you're not alone. Neat trays, balanced portions, real fish, miso soup, and a room full of children eating together in their own classroom. It looks nothing like the cafeterias most of us grew up with.
I spent five and a half years as a nutrition teacher at a Japanese elementary school - planning menus, managing kitchens, and watching children develop their relationship with food every single day. Here's what kyushoku really is, from the inside.
The Menu: More Than Just Lunch
Every kyushoku menu is built around a simple framework: staple food, main dish, and side dish - the same three-part structure that anchors Japanese home cooking.
My job was to make sure every meal hit the right balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals - calculated precisely for each age group. But nutrition numbers were only half the work. The other half was making sure children actually wanted to eat it.
Vegetables were the biggest challenge. Kids everywhere resist vegetables - Japan is no different. So I developed ways to make them more appealing: varying the seasoning, changing the texture, pairing bitter greens with mild broths, using herbs and mild spices to add depth without overwhelming young palates. The goal was always to expand what children would willingly eat, not just what they were required to finish.
The Meals Children Loved (And the Ones They Didn't)
Ask any Japanese adult about their favourite kyushoku memory and you'll likely hear one of these:
Curry rice - Japan's most-loved school lunch. A mild, thick curry perfectly calibrated for children. On curry days, even the slowest eaters cleaned their trays.
Age-pan - deep-fried bread rolled in sugar or kinako (roasted soybean flour). A nostalgic favourite that still appears on menus across Japan. When age-pan was on the menu, the classroom atmosphere changed.
Wakame gohan - rice mixed with seasoned seaweed. Simple, umami-rich, and deeply comforting.
The dishes that tended to come back to the kitchen? Mixed rice (maze gohan) and takikomi gohan - rice cooked with vegetables and other ingredients. Even when the flavour was good, many children struggled with unfamiliar textures mixed into their rice. I learned to introduce these dishes gradually, building familiarity over time.
Allergy Management: No Child Left Behind
Food allergies require serious attention in Japanese school kitchens. For any child with a documented allergy, the menu was adapted so that the allergen simply wasn't present in their meal - not removed at the last step, but absent from the cooking process entirely.
Separate preparation, separate cooking equipment, separate serving. Nothing was left to chance. Parents communicated allergies to the school in advance, and we worked from that information every single day.
What Kyushoku Looks Like in the Classroom
In Japan, there is no cafeteria. Children eat in their own classroom, at their own desks, with their teacher. A rotating group of students - the kyushoku toban (lunch duty team) - puts on white aprons, caps, and masks, then carries the food from the school kitchen and serves their classmates.
Each child receives a fixed portion. The toban has to estimate amounts carefully to make sure everyone gets an equal share. It sounds like a small thing. It teaches a great deal.
The atmosphere is warm and lively - cooperative, not competitive. Children help each other, pass dishes, and make sure everyone has what they need. And then, before anyone takes a bite:
"Itadakimasu"
Said together, at the same moment, to express gratitude - to the farmers, the cooks, the living things that became the meal. At the end:
"Gochisousama deshita"
These phrases are not a formality in Japanese schools. Teachers reinforce their meaning every day. Food is not just fuel. It is something to be received with care.
Why Kyushoku Matters Beyond Japan
Japan's school lunch system has attracted international attention - and for good reason. But what makes kyushoku unusual isn't just the nutrition. It's the philosophy embedded in every meal:
- Responsibility: children serve each other
- Gratitude: meals begin and end with intention
- Seasonality: menus change with the harvest
- Community: everyone - including the teacher - eats the same thing
These aren't extras. They are the point.
And for me, personally - they are the reason I spent five and a half years getting up early to plan menus, calculate nutrients, and make sure every child in that school had a lunch worth looking forward to.
Food is where health begins. I believe that now more than ever.
Try a Kyushoku Recipe at Home
The recipes on JapanDish are adapted from real school lunch dishes - the kind I planned and served at school. They're made for home kitchens, with ingredients you can find outside Japan.
Yumi is a registered dietitian and certified school nutrition teacher with 5.5 years of experience planning school lunches in Japan.