I’m Japanese-American and growing up, my Japan-born parents did not leave a grain of rice in their bowl and Saran Wrapped whatever was left in the rice maker. I’ve been trained to not waste rice. I have my own family now, and Calrose rice being inexpensive, my kids and spouse readily toss leftover rice.
My parents were both born in the closing months of WW2. Does their high level of rice conservation come from living through postwar scarcity, analogous to Americans who lived through the Great Depression? Or is it an older cultural norm? What is the norm in Japan?
20 comments
I have seen i think in a movie or tv (maybe grave of the fireflies? I forget) that not wasting a single grain of rice was a thing, and this dialog took place in ww2 japan or post war japan. But I don’t know if its a specific japanese thing with rice. I think it could apply to any country where people understand what scarcity is, so they don’t want to be wasteful in general.
For context, im also Japanese american, and my mom grew up dirt poor in post ww2 japan (her dad was killed in it). She is very unwasteful not just with rice but everything. A lot of my parents age related peers also grew up without a lot of luxuries, and had to work hard for what they had (immigrant culture, of all mixed up origins). So I lean that way too, being raised directly by them.
My spouse’s parents are younger than mine, are a generation further from their immigrant roots and were not living in japan when ww2 went down, and came from what i gather was a wealthier family. I don’t think they were grossly wasteful, but not as stringent. I don’t think their peers were as associated with the poor immigrant plantation culture (of hawaii). And I gotta say, I do think my spouse is way more wasteful than me, in terms of leftovers and discards during food prep. But he also puts more a premium of not “wasting time” and space over things he thinks are inconsequential.
Edit: after reading all the comments maybe the real question should be “Whats with this American (or whatever country) cultural norm of wasting food? What’s the origins of that weird practice?” Heh heh!
My girlfriend is Japanese and it is impressive how well she cleans her plate/bowl. There is never a spec of food left and often I’m not even sure how she did it (with chopsticks no less.) Like, you could just put the plate and bowl back in the cupboard like it was a clean dish. She also saves any rice from her rice cooker to eat the next day.
I don’t like wasting food anyways, but I definitely don’t like wasting rice (unless it’s completely inedible and that rarely ever happens.) Maybe just trying talking to them and make it a rule to always use up the leftover rice and not to toss it away? Rice needs to be appreciated.
Have you heard of “mottainai?”
“一粒に七人の神様” sums up the mentality, with varying sayings of similar vein depending on where in Japan you find yourself in.
I lived in rural Japan for several years around 2010. I overheard the adults teaching the children not to waste even a grain of rice because “grandma and grandpa worked very hard to grow it for us”. These people grew up surrounded by rice patties and most had some sort of vegetable garden their family tended to. Even when the rice was bought in the store it came from the JA collective so I think people just really understood the value of the labour.
It could be that historically, rice was the main form of wealth in Japan. I think coins weren’t minted until around the Tokugawa era, maybe Meiji? I can’t really remember. But people were primarily paid in units of rice called “Koshi”. It could be that it is leftover from that. Kind of like a mentality of “each wasted grain is wasted wealth”. Not 100% sure though.
I’m Japanese living in the Bay Area and I do wrap leftover rice to save for later. Didn’t even think about throwing away leftovers in the rice cooker. Very interesting… Maybe our parents (and indirectly we too) got brainwashed to be mottainai-minded especially after the ww2
Not sure about the historical aspect and all that, but my Japanese grandma (born pre-WW2) is pretty strict about leftover food on the plate. I think this is the same for any culture though, since food was more scarce back when they grew up. In Japan rice has been “the food” for ages so there are countless types of phrases that parents tell their children to not leave a single grain of rice in your bowl.
My friend from Japan said that you don‘t leave rice because the farmers worked hard to provide it. It‘s being polite to the hard working farmers.
I know a lot of Japanese people who don’t waste food at all but just I don’t think throwing out perfectly good leftover rice is acceptable in many places
I think there is a Japanese saying about there being seven gods in each grain of rice. Or that you will anger/offend seven gods with each grain you leave in your bowl. Can’t remember which, as I heard it twenty years ago. Either way it shows you how Japanese people feel about wasted rice.
Saran wrap! Genius! Thank you for that tip. I always want to save my white rice but it gets dry and unattractive so quickly, even when I pack it in tight to a container (best method I’ve found).
Maybe people throw it away because they don’t know how to preserve it?
Japanese here. Grew up in the Philippines and still partially live in Japan.
I just observe no one really wastes food over there in general.
Lived here 20+ years. Wasting rice at home is just silly, as The preferred method of making chahan is with leftover rice. I just don’t get throwing out rice at home. If you’re in a restaurant, well 無理しなくていい, but at home? Yeah, we save. As for rice left on the plate, we teach our kids to eat it all if they can. If they can’t, amd no one else finishes it, that’s a rare exception where we might toss it. But it isn’t that hard to finish up a bowl of rice.
My Japanese grandpa was pretty strict about not leaving any rice in my rice bowl. He lived during the war. My mother didn’t really care. Japanese rice is expensive in Europe, so we freeze leftovers from the cooker.
We, Japanese family, put it Tupperware for rice and freeze it. Lasts and easy to microwave.
yes culture this and culture that, but dude don’t throw away shit-
this isn’t the 1970’s any more when nobody understood how we were fucking up the planet and running out of resources
Studied Japanese & Chinese cultures several years ago. I believe this is deeply culturally related. In feudal Japan rice was extremely labor-intensive. Backbreaking work to plant it, cultivate & harvest it. Japanese learned that if they could dry it out they could carry it into battle far away from home so it helped feudalblords fight armies of other feudal lords far away from home. Rice was so important that it was used as currency. The more rice a person had the more “wealthy” they were thought to be.
The importance of rice, based on its socioeconomic value throughout Japanese/Chinese history cannot be understated. They grew up knowing of the all-important value of rice. You would be hard-pressed to find a Japanese/Chinese person who willingly throws away leftover rice as that would be akin to throwing away money.
Rice has a rich and interesting history. If you felt so inclined, you could teach your family the importance rice had and it would not be time wasted.
It’s probably an olderly culture norm. For us in southeast asian countries. Whenever we have some leftover rice we keep it in a bowl, dry the moisture out,dry it in the sun for 3-4 days. Then we fry it with oils. Pour black sugar sauce all over it.
I’ve known many cultures and ethnicity that make use of left over rice even Britain. They have a traditional dessert called rice pudding.
We try not to waste even a single grain of rice as it is considered very disrespectful for the farmers.