Meiji Period Western Import Foods and Yoshoku Transformation
Japan — Meiji Restoration 1868; deliberate Western food culture adoption as modernisation policy
The Meiji Restoration (1868) triggered Japan's most dramatic dietary transformation since Buddhism arrived with vegetarianism: deliberate adoption of Western foods as a modernisation and military strength policy. The Meiji Emperor publicly ate beef in 1872, explicitly ending the 1,200-year Buddhist prohibition on meat consumption and signalling state endorsement of Western dietary practices. Western imports in the Meiji period: beef (gyuniku), pork (becoming sukiyaki and tonkatsu), dairy products (milk, butter, cheese — establishing Hokkaido dairy industry), bread (pan — from Portuguese pão, revealing when the word entered Japanese), tomatoes, potatoes, onions, asparagus, carrots in new preparations, coffee, wine, and beer. Japanese adaptation was immediate and ingenious: rather than adopting Western dishes wholesale, Japanese cooks transformed them through Japanese sensibility. The result was yoshoku — Western-style Japanese food. Yoshoku canon: omurice (omelette rice), hamburgu (Hamburg steak), korokke (croquettes from French croquettes), hayashi raisu (Hayashi rice — beef and onion in demi-glace sauce), napolitan pasta (ketchup spaghetti), cream korokke, ebi fry (breaded fried prawns), and tonkatsu. Each yoshoku dish represents a Meiji-era transformation: Western technique applied to Japanese rice-culture eating, with Japanese sauce preferences dominating. The demi-glace tradition in yoshoku is a window into Meiji-era French cuisine influence via diplomacy and French-trained imperial chefs.