Hi hello! It's ya boi 4 (Lucia), back again to discuss some of my fruit findings. Since arriving here in Japan, I haven't actually gone out with the sole intent of looking at fruits in stores and such. Class has been keeping me relatively busy, and a lot of my free time is spent exploring Tokyo with new friends. However! I had downloaded some papers on my laptop prior to the plane ride here and finished reading those during that 11-ish hour flight. One book I read was a little outdated, but it taught gave me some insight on how fruits came to be so expensive in Japan.
For reference's sake, the book I found most useful for my topic is "The Fruit Culture in Japan" by Tomochika Ikeda, originally published 1909... It's over 100 years old, but it discusses the conditions of the past and so I'll regard it as a valid perspective into the past. Upon a quick Google search (to find the publication date of this book), apparently this book is regarded as culturally important by scholars... whatever that means, haha. :P
I think I'll start with what I thought I knew before I started researching fruits. Last time I was in Japan, my brother, his girlfriend, and I didn't really eat many fruits. Fruits are expensive, I heard, and they're regarded as luxury goods. When I thought as to why that might be the case, I thought it was a logical consequence of Japan's large population and limited land that can be allocated for growing fruits. It's a simple matter of supply and demand, I thought, but after doing some research, I found that there was more to it after all.
Let's talk about land first. Not only is Japan a relatively small country in terms of size, but not all the land is arable--that is, not all the land is suitable for growing crops. That's pretty... expected...
But wait! There's more!
A lot of the arable land was allocated for other uses, notably to grow trees for the production of firewood and charcoal. Up until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, wood and charcoal were the only sources of fuel in Japan. At least, such was the case according to the book mentioned above, and at the time of publication (1909), coal was still being used for fuel. Nowadays, it seems that Japan's energy is sourced from coal, hydroelectricity, oil and gas, and nuclear power. With all these novel energy sources, I wonder how different Japan's allocation of resources (ie. land) now differs from over 100 years ago when the book was written.
During the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), Japan had a policy of isolationism, so there was very limited contact with the Western world. This had some implications for fruit production in Japan because, while Europe and America were developing efficient methods to mass produce fruits, fruits in Japan were only being acquired naturally (ie. naturally occurring fruit trees and bushes). There was very little conscious effort to increase the yield of fruits, and only the wealthy could afford to buy from this limited supply. This may be the start of the luxury status of fruits in Japan.
The Japanese commoner barely ate fruit, but it seems that even back then, fruits were not prioritised in a daily diet. Other foods, like rice, barley, sweet potatoes, onions, etc. formed the staple of the common diet. Since Japan is surrounded by water, fish was also a large part of the Japanese diet back then. Following the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, vegetarianism spread, so the production of vegetables increased but fruits were still not prioritised.
All in all, Japan was not equipped with the land space nor the cultivation methods to produce a lot of fruit, and the diet of the common person also did little to encourage fruit production. I think over the years, Japanese culture has just developed around these aspects in such a way that fruits were not made to be essential.
Meanwhile, Canada... is not nearly as old as Japan. But, the geography and international relations are vastly different. I think we import a lot of fruits and we also have a lot of space to grow fruit (although our winters are quite harsh). I don't plan to do much research into the history of fruits in Canada, since my focus in on fruits in Japan. I hope this post is sufficient background for the coming posts. I think it's time to go out there and see how fruits are doing in Japan today.
Stay tuned (maybe) for more recent news about fruits! As a taste, I've already realised some of my former perceptions about fruits in Japan have since needed to be adjusted these past few days.
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