Konnichiwa

Today I would like to introduce bread in Japan

Japan actually has quite a long history with bread, but it wasn’t until the last 80 years or so when bread truly was integrated into Japanese culture. Today bread is a regular part of many people’s lives. Below I'll give you a brief overview the history and culture of bread in Japan.

Chapter 1: Bread comes to Japan [Mid 1500s]

So, who brought bread to Japan? Along with Christianity and guns, the Portuguese introduced bread to Japan around 1543. The Japanese adopted the Portuguese word for bread, pão, and call bread pan, (パン).

While this was the introduction of bread to Japan, it wasn’t really consumed by Japanese, but by traders and missionaries at the time.

Chapter 2: Japan decides to go into isolation [Mid 1600s]

Now let’s fast forward to 100 years, to when Japan entered Sakoku (鎖国) or the closed country period (1639-1854.) It is believed that these policies were implemented in part to remove the colonial and religious influence of Spain and Portugal. During this time, the government implemented deep isolationist policies, including limited trading partners, and nearly no one could enter or leave the country. Unironically, bread was banned as well.

Chapter 3: Japanese people actually start eating bread [1842~]

Alright, now things start to get interesting in the latter half of the Edo Period (1603-1868) around 1842 during the First Opium War between the UK and China. No, Japan did not fight in this war, but it did have a strong influence. After the British overwhelmingly defeated the Qing dynasty, the Shoganate feared the invasion of the British. Accordingly, the Shoganate needed to prepare for an attack – this is when the Japanese military turned to bread.

Depending on the source, there are multiple theories as to why Japan started to feed bread to soldiers instead of rice. One is that military scientist Tarozaemon Egawa believed that bread was a better food for soldiers than rice. Other sources say that bread was easier to be conserved and carried around. And lastly, to prepare rice, a fire had to be made to cool it and consequently, this would create smoke, which would let the enemy know where you were. Perhaps, it is a combination of all three theories. Nevertheless, bread had its comeback.

Chapter 4: Bread starts to become “Japanese” [1868-1945]

While bread was back in Japan, it wasn’t until the Meiji Era (1868-1912) that Western culture, accompanied by bread, spread across Japan. At first, bread consumption was very regional and in areas with high foreign influence, such as Kobe or Yokohama. Home to the largest foreign settlement, Yokohama was key in the spread of Western culture. Japanese people working in these foreign settlements learned how to make bread and other western cuisines and in turn passed this knowledge on to the rest of country.

At the time, bread was not seen as a meal or even part of a meal, but rather a snack. As a result, an pan (あんパン) was born. Invented by Yasubei Kimura in 1874, an pan is bread filled with red bean paste. Due to the popularity his creation, Japan's oldest bakery, Kimuraya Sohonten Bakery was born and still is in business today.

Chapter 5: Post WWII [1945~]

After World War II, Japan was in ruins and faced food shortages. To assist Japan, the US provided food rations, including wheat and powered milk. Bread appeared in school lunches and quickly began to become part of everyday life.

Bread Today: Current bread culture and consumption habits

As they say, the rest of history…the consumption of bread continued to grow and so did Japan’s bread culture. Bread is still served in school lunches often as shokupan or agepan, fried bread. Not only are there bakeries, but stores that specialize in one type of bread, such as shokupan.
In fact, family spending of bread overtook rice in the early 2010’s. However, it should be known that consumption wise, rice is still king in Japan.

According to the Japan Baking Industry Association, 611,800 tons of bread was manufactured in 1952, and has now doubled to 1,254,062 tons in 2017. So while the pace was slow, it has grown a lot over the last few decades.

How did bread become so popular?

One of the main reasons for the recent preference for bread is Japan’s older citizens. According to the Japan Baking Industry Association, when a couple has children, they are more likely to go through the work to make rice, especially in the morning. However, once children leave the house, there is a tendency to switch over to bread as there is little to none preparation. That helps to explain both the increase in bread and decrease in rice.

Popular Japanese breads

I hope by now your interest in bread has piqued. Let’s take a look into Japanese breads you should know....the rest of the article is continued here...

Final Thoughts

Japanese style bread is one of the old fusion foods of the East and West that has become an essential part of Japanese food culture. Next time you have the opportunity, I encourage you to give Japanese bread a try.

P.S Sandwiches with Shokupan seems to be a trendy in the US (if you have heard of the katsu sando.) But Japanese sandwhiches are a whole other topic. If you want to know more let me know and maybe I will write about it.

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