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Nathan HopsonThis is the first in aplanned series of posts on nutrition science and government-sanctioned recipesin imperial Japan.In May 1922, Japan’spreeminent nutritionist, Saiki Tadasu, released a recording of his “NutritionSong,” performed by opera star Hanafusa Shizuko. Saiki, a medical doctor whohad received a PhD from Yale in 1907 before returning to Japan to crusade fornational nutritional improvement, was the founding director of the GovernmentInstitution for Nutrition (IGIN). In this position, Saiki was the mostprominent of a generation of nutritional reformers who advocated a new nationaldiet based on modern, rational nutrition science. The IGIN, the world’s firstgovernment-sponsored dedicated nutrition lab, was established in 1920 under thepowerful home ministry to address a constellation of “food problems” increasinglyunavoidable after the nationwide paroxysm of Rice Riots in 1918. It was arecognition at the highest levels that for Japan to fulfill its dream of beingone of the Great Powers, from the ideological project of hygienic modernity tothe realities of scarcity and waste, food would play a central role.Under Saiki, the IGIN evangelized for a distinctly Japanese “national nutrition,” based on the objective and quantifiable universalities of state-of-the-art nutrition science—especially the American “New Nutrition” to which he had been exposed while in the US—but simultaneously sensitive to Japan’s particular circumstances. The Institute primarily targeted the new urban middle-class “professional housewife” class and children more broadly: the former with a media blitz that included articles in women’s magazines, a daily radio broadcast of approved recipes (a topic for a future post), and numerous workshops, both on-site and around Japan; and the latter through a school lunch program that gained traction in the 1920s. This combination, promising to help both women and children, promised the greatest long-term improvement in the national diet: children would learn to eat properly, and their mothers to cook properly. In all of its proselytizing, the Institute appealed to the upwardly mobile self-interest of its audiences, reminding them that with its scientific and rational “economical nutrition” plans, they could do more with less.The “Nutrition Song” was a didactic nine-verse summary of Saiki’s master plan for proper (rational and economical) national nutrition, based on the substitution of nutritionally equivalent foods to reduce waste and cost while simultaneously increasing efficiency. The first two stanzas of the Nutrition Song deal, respectively, with personal and social nutrition. The third verse explains macronutrients. The fourth lists daily dietary requirements and promotes Saiki’s “each meal perfect” meal planning system, based on the New Nutrition’s Taylorist doctrine of nutritional quantifiability and the substitutability of equivalent foods. Verses five, six, and seven are, respectively, anti-gourmand, pro-substitution (“economical nutrition”), and white rice-skeptical (another topic for another day…). The final two verses remind listeners to eat rationally rather than emotionally. Saiki’s lyrics are, in short, imperial Japan’s recipe for national nutrition.&#60;Figure 1 The “Nutrition Song.” Lyrics by Saiki Tadasu, 1922. Author’s collection.Wake in the morning with the strength to crush an ogreRefreshed by peaceful dreamsWith a strong mind to overcome heat and coldImpervious to diseaseThese are the gifts of nutritionEven foreigners will be jealous of our children and grandchildrenGreat and strong, humbly thank the godsFor pure water and endless foodGiving life and saving the worldThese are the rewards of nutritionProtein in milk, meat, eggs, shellfish, and beans builds the bodyPotatoes, grains, and sugars are called carbohydratesLike fats they burn easily, giving strength and heatWhat’s left settles, enriching the bodyAn average working person requires80g of protein and 2400 calories, the rest from fats and carbohydratesEnsure that each mealIs rich in nutrition“Good” foods are not necessarily rare delicaciesAffordable wholesome foods aboundMeats are good, fish excellentDried or salted, cod, sardines, herring, and fresh breamTofu, natto, miso, and soy flour; beans can substitute for meatSupplement taste and nutrition with meat scraps and dried whole sardinesPrepare food cleverly so as not to wasteAnd learn proper storage so as not to waste heaven’s bountyConsider the immense virtues in each little grainUse rice properly: mill appropriately and don’t washWhen rice is scarce, eat barley, buckwheat, millets, and potatoesEating them all together for red blood and strong bonesEat a balanced diet, different for young and oldEat bones, skin, and flesh for minerals and vitaminsDo not gratify your appetites; daily routine is most importantChew well and don’t be pickyThat’s the secret to a long, healthy life In frozen winter the body loses heatSo eat plenty of fatty foodsIn sweltering summer, eat fruits and vegetables and drink waterFor unchanging health in changing seasons In my next post, I’ll examine the IGIN’s official cookbook, a year’s worth of IGIN-endorsed recipes interspersed with helpful columns about food- and nutrition-related topics. It’s the practical application of the principles laid out in the “Nutrition Song.” This post is based on my forthcoming article, “Nutrition as National Defense: Japan’s Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition, 1920-1940.” Journal of Japanese Studies 45, no. 1 (2019).Nathan Hopson is an associate professor of Japanese and East Asian history at Nagoya University, Japan. His first book,&#160;Ennobling Japan’s Savage Northeast: Tōhoku as Postwar Thought, 1945-2011&#160;(Harvard University Asia Center, 2017)&#160;treated the place of Tōhoku (northeast Honshu) in modern Japanese national history. He is currently&#160;researching the history of school lunches in Japan and their relationship to the development and application of nutrition science as a technology of national strengthening, focusing on the history of governmental "nutritional activism" and the school lunch program, 1920-present.