Ingrained habits: the “kitchen cars” and the transformation of postwar Japanese diet and identity

What is it about?

In the late 1950s, the United States funded a fleet of nutrition education buses (“kitchen cars”) in Japan. They were a critical factor contributing to dietary change in postwar Japan. The kitchen cars traveled from town to town, demonstrating how to cook cheap, nutritious meals. For their American sponsors, the kitchen cars had three two functions: to support the economic and social rebuilding of an important ally, and to teach the Japanese to eat American agricultural staples such as wheat, corn, soy, and eventually meat and dairy. Japanese politicians, health professionals, and the public welcomed the kitchen cars; they were so popular that when the program sunsetted in 1960, Japanese cities and prefectures created their own, with support from the national government. The kitchen cars remained an important institution in Japan until the 1980s, when television became a more convenient way to reach mass audiences.

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Why is it important?

The kitchen cars were a critical factor contributing to dietary change in postwar Japan. Understanding the history of the kitchen cars challenges simplistic ideas of a universal, “natural” dietary transition, revealing the active involvement of state and commercial actors. The kitchen cars were popular and had tangible personal and national benefits, but their legacy is complicated; they were a short-term win-win with unintended long-term consequences.

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