Another distinctive aspect of school lunches in Japan is the kyushoku touban, or lunch duty. From first grade, students are split into han, groups of about five or six people, and take weekly rotations on lunch duty. I participated in this practice every summer when I attended public school in Tokyo. At the start of the week, students don white coats and caps (which had been brought home and washed over the weekend by the previous week’s owners) and wear them while serving lunch the rest of the week. The duties usually begin with retrieving the homeroom’s silver cart of food from the kitchen, setting up the stacks of plates, and uncovering steaming dishes of food. The teacher assigns students to specific roles, such as handing out pieces of salmon or pouring soup, and the other students, those who are not on duty, line up neatly to wait for their turn to get food and then go sit down. After finishing their meal, those on lunch duty complete their jobs by returning the now-empty cart to the kitchen.
Article 2, Section 5 of the School Lunch Act states that one of the goals of school lunches is “to deepen understanding that diet is supported by the various activities of people involved in food, and to foster an attitude of valuing hard work” (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 1954). Through setting up, serving, and cleaning the food and dishes necessary to feed their classmates every day, students are taught the work and effort that must be put into serving meals. Moreover, students are expected to treat this duty with utmost care and respect: before handling any food, they wash their hands, tie their hair back (for girls), and put on masks. In addition, working in the hans (the small groups) in duties is an essential part of the school curriculum, as it develops a sense of community and belonging while teaching students how to work together effectively. In this way, a sense of responsibility is intertwined with human relations (Damrow 2014). Students must learn to trust one another and cooperate to reach a common goal, creating a sense of shared identity and closeness.
There is another educational component of school lunches: an appreciation for Japan’s cultural heritage and tradition, along with a desire to preserve them. In addition to nutrition education, one of the other main goals of the Basic Act on Shokuiku was to make citizens aware of Japan’s rich food culture. It notes, “Blessed with an abundance of forest and water resources, Japan has developed our ‘food and nutrition’ and passed it down from generation to generation, consequently making it regionally diverse and rich in taste and culture; but it is at risk of being lost” (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries 2005). This is not a new idea: Article 2, Section 6 of the School Lunch Act states that one of the purposes of school lunches is to “deepen understanding of the excellent traditional food culture of our country and each region” (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 1954). Both of these government sources state the same goal – for Japanese citizens to recognize the rich traditional foods of Japan – although the Basic Act has the additional purpose of trying to save those foods from being lost. This education starts in school with the lunches, in which traditional Japanese foods are prevalent, as seen in the example lunch given above. As the students go through school and into society, they ostensibly will have learned the importance and value of incorporating these habits into daily meals and the value of preserving this heritage.
In addition to the values of cultural sustainability is an emphasis on economic sustainability. The Basic Act on Shokuiku states that “contribution must be made to vitalizing rural areas whose economy is based on agriculture, forestry or fisheries” (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries 2005). This emphasis is also taught through school lunches. The menus given noted the location in Japan from which some of the ingredients, such as rice, were harvested. Through this, students learn an appreciation for supporting domestic agricultural products, a trait they can carry throughout their lives.
This duty can teach students to be more attentive in other areas of their lives as well. In an interview with my Japanese school teacher, Ms. H, I asked her about her thoughts on the kyushoku touban (lunch duty). She believed that this duty promotes an emphasis on teamwork and a sense of responsibility that students can apply to their lives outside of the classroom. Students learning to serve lunch at school can then help their parents at home to prepare meals, and if they see someone in need of help, they will do so, because they know the importance of looking out for each other; there is a sense of collective care. However, there is a rigidity around the lunch practices that makes them less comfortable for certain students.