All language subtitles for Japanology Plus 2019-03-26 - Meat

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an intricately marbled cut of meat this

is Japan's world-famous Courbet beef it

comes from cows raised for three years

using strict guidelines Japan delights

gourmets with steak yakitori sukiyaki

tonkatsu and other meat dishes but for

1,200 years Japan actually prohibited

meat consumption as we'll see

rice played a role in that ban this time

on jabber knology plus we look at some

cultural features of meat eating in

Japan

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hello welcome to Japan on G+ I'm Peter

Barca in recent years there seems to be

an increasing number of vegans around

the world

so today's program may have limited

appeal we're going to be talking about

meat we're a carnivore like myself

Japan has plenty to offer in that area I

mean core bear city which is world

famous for its beef so much so that in

2009 when President Barack Obama came to

Japan Kobe beef was firmly on his wish

list these days you'll find a wide

variety of meat in any Japanese

supermarket but regular consumption of

meat has only been widespread in Japan

for about 50 years and in the past

several hundreds of years the eating of

meat was actually prohibited in Japan on

today's program we'll take a look at the

reasons for that and what brought about

the change in attitudes in recent years

for many people the phrase Japanese food

conjures up images of fish rather than

meat but let's ask some people what they

like to eat the Japanese diet has

changed dramatically over the past 50

years

in 1960 the average person ate only 3.5

kilograms of meat per year but by 2017

that figure was thirty two point seven

kilos nearly ten times as much by

comparison

seafood consumption stood at just twenty

four point four kilos and that amount is

in decline

a Tokyo department store in sight is a

specialist meat counter

there are separate sections for chicken

beef and pork prices are higher here

than they would be at a supermarket

chicken thigh is about 400 yen for 100

grams pork loin is 670 yen for 100 grams

and beef loin 2500 yen for 100 grams

each cut is individually wrapped

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so what meat dishes are popular in Japan

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steak and fried chicken are common

worldwide but Japan also offers some

unique takes on dishes featuring me one

example is sukiyaki beef fat is melted

in a special pattern thin strips of beef

are frying then you add sugar and soy

sauce

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when the meat is browned on both sides

it's dipped in beaten egg before being

eaten next is shabu shabu thin strips of

meat are cooked by swishing them around

in a pan of boiling stock they are eaten

with sesame or citrus sources after the

mead you add vegetables like mushrooms

greens and carrots

this is yakitori bite-sized pieces of

chicken cooked on skewers over a

charcoal grill

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there are two main types of seasoning

salt or padam tatah is a sweet thick soy

based source countless other dishes

including con katsu and nikujaga feature

meat cooked or seasons in a

japanese-style yakiniku restaurants

where you grill meat at your table exist

in huge numbers plans are especially

popular with younger diners

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mutton and lamb are also eaten in Japan

for example they are used in genius gun

a dish cooked on a specially don't grill

Thanks the dishes like these meat takes

up an increasingly large portion of the

Japanese diet this time on Japanese A+

our guest is Knoblauch Harada a

professor at Kukushkin University his

work shines a light on Japanese culinary

culture and the key developments in its

history we're at a top-class

steak restaurant in central Corbin the

chef a 10-year veteran serves Kobe beef

one of Japan's three most renowned

varieties here's the main ingredient I

think this is the first time I've ever

eaten haven't eaten yet at a restaurant

with a Michelin star so I'm sure we're

in for something special with beef of

this quality I'm sure it's going to set

my bankaccount back quite a bit perhaps

we should find out how much before we

eat today's beef cost 16,000 yen for a

hundred grams okay

just to be prepared thank you when it

comes to top-class beef prices like that

and no surprise for most people eating

this kind of food is a

once-in-a-lifetime experience

the two diners I the small piece of

frying meat apprehensively how does it

how often do you eat me say how many

days of the week

quite often I'd say at least four days a

week

something like that I'm probably

something like that the actual amount of

meat

in one time it's probably not an awful

lot

it looks good it smell good and even

sounds good you can enjoy it with every

one of your senses after browning you

let it cook very slowly what happens

then

well the juices are trapped inside that

boosts the umami and the meat becomes

wonderfully soft

sharpness of the knife is amazing the

way you slice it changes the taste yes

you're supposed to cut it in such a way

that the juices stay in if you're

careless you damage the tissue of the

meat and that will let the juices escape

even high quality meats its heavily in

the stomach if you eat too much and a

normal-sized portion of beef like this

would cost a fortune so the restaurant

serves portions of 100 to 150 grams it's

tender and absolutely full of flavor it

really literally melts in the mouth when

it's cooking and when you eat it the

meat gives off a unique scent we call

that the Wagyu aroma took a what to say

that was just fantastic when you talk

about Japanese food immediately the the

things that come to mind uh sushi and

sashimi and tempered on a lot of things

that use fish but according to recent

statistics it seems that Japanese people

in general are now actually eating more

meat than fish which is it was a little

bit surprising to me when I first heard

that today Japanese people eat lots of

meat but up until relatively recently

things were very different

they still ate a great deal of fish it

really was a very recent change today

we're here in this restaurant having

this amazing

Kobe beef but for hundreds of years

there was a prohibition against Japanese

people eating meat so let's take a look

at why and how that happened how did the

Japanese relationship with me develop

through history over 10,000 years ago

Japanese people hunted and ate deer wild

boar and other animals but when rice

cultivation arrived fire the Korean

Peninsula three thousand years ago the

new club began to dominate the diet

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in the late sixth century Buddhism came

to Japan the religion forbids killing

and so as it spread meat consumption

declined

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one particularly devout Buddhist was the

10 new emperor in 675 he banned the

consumption of animal meat an act that

made an enormous impact on the national

diet it marked the beginning of a 1200

year period of prohibition the ban

finally came to an end during the Meiji

Restoration

when lifestyle shifted to follow a more

Western model in 1872 the Meiji Emperor

revoked the prohibition of meat and

began eating it himself he said I didn't

do it for my health it was necessary as

a way to build better relationships with

foreigners national isolation had ended

and meat-eating was now regarded as

vital for international exchange

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as meat had been banned for so long at

first the public at launch didn't take

to him but people experimented using

condiments like soy sauce and miso and

they created dishes that suited the

Japanese palate beef in particular

became a symbol of westernization and

among earlier doctors miso beef hot pots

were popular soon enough meat-eating

had spread across the whole country

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yakitori I mean just the aroma events

enough to make your mouth water enough

something as good as this

it's amazing that for so long Japanese

people weren't allowed to eat this now

the burn on eating meat was what twelve

hundred years in 675 the ten new emperor

introduced what we call the ban on meat

the animals the ban covered were cows

horses chickens dogs and monkeys which

are very similar to humans but the ban

only applied to those five animals

everything else including wild boar and

venison was still allowed also the ban

only applied from the time rice was

planted to when it was harvested just

that period in other words those animals

couldn't be killed and eaten between

April and September the leaders of the

past thought that if people ate meat

during those times they wouldn't make a

good rice that's what the people in

charge believed what was the logic for

not being able to grow the rice properly

of people reading meat

for the Japanese rice is a sacred food

rice or rice based products like sake

and mochi rice cakes are used as

offerings at shrines rice was a sacred

offering to the deities but meat on the

other hand was seen as unclean that at

least is the view that took hold after

the ten move Emperor issued his ban if

you became ritually impure were there

certain particular things that happened

to you or did people think so people

believed that meat-eating would cause

blindness or contort your mouth they

were common superstitions they even

believed that the impurity could spread

from person to person so if person a ate

meat they were impure for 100 days after

100 days had passed they would be back

to normal but if they shared a meal with

person B during that time B was impure

for 30 days so a ate meat and B didn't

but the fact that a and B ate together

was enough to make the impurity spread

for 30 days yes 30 and let's say there's

a person C who's never even met a if C

eats with B then C becomes impure for 7

days but the impurity disappears beyond

that okay so if you're d you're cool and

other particular periods within that

twelve hundred years when the

prohibitions were particularly severe or

perhaps were more lenient the

limitations were at their most strict in

the 17th to 19th centuries the Edo

period at that time rice was used to

measure the value of everything from the

size of settlements to the economic

power of Lords

therefore the cultivation of rice spread

for political reasons meat was seen as

the unclean opposite of rice and that is

why it was shunned in the Edo period and

that lasted all the way through to the

end of the Edo period like two hundred

and fifty years there was a degree of

flexibility for example people with

frail health could eat meat to get their

strength back it was seen as a kind of

medicine people also used that kind of

logic so again this is an indication

that despite it being strictly

prohibited people did want to eat it

they did like eating meat so they found

a way to get around the problem to the

prohibitions that's right in the past

Japanese people ate a lot of wild boar

and deer they were known as whales of

the mountains and people ate them

because they were seen as more like fish

than Mitsuwa taisha shrine is

particularly famous for selling a

talisman that called a venison permit if

you had that you could eat deer so there

were loopholes like that

Japan's famous for the whole idea of

umami which Japanese take from things

like seaweed in other countries I think

they would get the same kind of thing

from meat especially from the the fat

would it be logical to assume the

Japanese went to all these lengths of

finding and women other things because

they weren't eating meat a lot of

countries use animal fat in their

cooking as a source of but in Japan meat

eating was ostensibly banned so people

made sure to avoid meat when cooking

formally that's why people used seaweed

or fish for umami flavor we saw that

development in the aro period when the

restrictions on meat consumption were

most severe we have the best of both

worlds these days yes indeed in the

modern era we have yakitori like this

sukiyaki tonkatsu and so on we've

developed an approach to food where meat

and fish are equally enjoyable

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wanky is the name for native Japanese

cattle where is Japan and kill refers to

beef the exquisitely marbled beef that

these breeds produce has made a name for

itself all over the world

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hi I'm Matt alt and this is plus one

today I'm deep in the mountains of me a

Prefecture in a little town called

Matsuzaka this is where they raised

Matsuzaka cattle which are used to make

Matsusaka beef one of the most famous

brands of Wagyu in all of Japan there's

lots of tips and tricks and techniques

to making this beef taste so good and

that's what I'm gonna check out on

today's episode as you can see I've had

to change into a special protective

outfit this isn't to protect me it's to

protect the cows from any germs that we

humans bring in as you can see it's not

just me but the whole crew hello there

thank you for having me today

tell me all about not to suck on you

let's get started

Matt disinfects his shoes first of all

how many cattle do you have here 55 the

three most prominent types of yq--

Matsuzaka only and Colbert all use carbs

from Tajima in her goal but they're

raised in different climates using

different techniques

Matsusaka beef includes a special

variety that is made using virgin female

Tajima cattle fattened for over 900 days

to produce a top-class meat hygiene

management is taken very seriously on

average 50 to 100 animals are raised at

each farm and in principle they don't

graze outside instead farmers take

personal care of each one of them

do you feed them any special types of

food we perfected our feed over many

years it's a blend of oats wheat bran

corn and soybeans this looks like a

really nice premium breakfast cereal you

can eat it it's tasty go ahead it's

pretty good Wow it's like muesli this is

really good as we slowly fatten the cows

the aroma and sweetness of the grain is

absorbed those qualities get right into

the meat so what are we doing here

messaging the cows is this also key to

why matsuzaka beef tastes so good that's

right

massaging them improves this circulation

it also reduces stress can I give it a

try go right ahead

this is fun

hey we paid a visit to another nearby

farm

well first of all it's so clean and nice

in here it's oh yes you want stress-free

cows with a good appetite hygiene is a

part of that creating an appropriate

living environment for the cows is

clearly an important key to success

as I understand it Matsuzaka beef is

famed for how marbled it is is there

some special way to get that after we

receive a calf the first year is

make-or-break we have to fatten them up

then we feed them a set amount for three

years and that creates wonderfully

marbled meat well I met the cows now

it's time to eat the meat

what does Matsuzaka beef taste like this

is my first time trying it and this

restaurant which is established in 1902

is famed for its Matsuzaka beef

follow me well this is it

the main course sukiyaki give us

cornerguy CMOS the meat so what do you

think makes Matsuzaka beef taste

different from other types of these oh

my god there we see this me sukiyaki

needs about the decided though to mess

it up I can see it's very marbled hey so

there's a necklace with similar - isn't

it okay well that's we say in Japan

ether lucky mas look at this

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oh wow it's incredibly mild but get rich

at the same time I wouldn't meet doc I

meet though you love allah almighty said

oh thank you so much for cooking for me

today well there you have it the

legendary Matsusaka beef of japan next

time you come to Japan keep an eye out

for wonderful brands of meat like this

and restaurants where people will cook

it for you

it's a great place to have a party or

like me just enjoy yourself that's what

I'll be doing until you tune in again

next time

this whole thing with marbled beef

really is a big deal why do you think

that is it's actually not limited to

just beef people in Japan also really

enjoy fatty fish there's a strong

conviction that flesh containing fat

tastes better than other varieties and

because we believe that marbled meat is

delicious I would say that this is what

we've always sought as we developed our

knowledge and technology on the other

hand when I was first here at in Japan

you didn't used to hear about his

marbled beef with something that one

hurt started hearing about a little more

recently I think again I'm sure there

must be a reason for that beef imports

were liberalized in 1991 and then a

large volume of cheap beef arrived from

countries like the United States when

that happened

Japan's livestock farmers were forced to

differentiate their products they needed

a way to make their products stand out

the quality they decided to pursue was

taste they aimed to develop a marbled

beef that melts in the mouth a style of

meat that wasn't found in other

countries that was their goal or today

definitely has been a bit of a treat but

living in Japan and you eat I mean a lot

of different kinds of meat and there are

things that we all take for granted

which are really quite simple

for example there's strips of pork

cooked with ginger and onions which is

something that I first met when I first

came to Japan 40 something years ago

don't think twice about but there are

these things that you really don't get

outside of Japan and they have all these

absolutely delicious ways of cooking

regular not expensively and I think

perhaps it's worth mentioning those

things because they are part of

the Japanese food culture and anybody

can partake of them anytime for very

very reasonable amounts of money it's

true that marbled beef commands a high

price tag but Japan certainly does make

cheap and delicious dishes available to

everyone as well meat based cuisine is

booming that I'm thankful that such

fantastic food is available on an

everyday basis thank you very much thank

you very much Japan has developed

top-of-the-range meat like corbeil beef

as well as cheap and casual dishes that

anyone can enjoy this broad assortment

adds to the rich variety of Japanese

cuisine

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next time on Japanese Plus popular

theater we explore a unique style of

performance with a broad appeal that has

lasted for hundreds of years