Hello again, dear Mimei san. I am French and my dream, since ever, is to come to Japan and live there. The thing is, I am vegan since a few months. And I don't wanna give up on that. You said that it was really difficult to be vegan/vegetalian in Japan. Could you please explain to me in what way it is so hard to be ?
Many many ways. I talked about this on my second channel a few years back so if you have time please check that out :) Here are some of the ways it’s difficult:
1) Culture. There is no culture of veganism/vegetarianism in Japan. There isn’t even a proper Japanese word for it (there is a word but it doesn’t have the same meaning as in the West). Hence Japanese people (while curious and kind about it) don’t usually understand vegetarianism unless they’ve lived overseas. This is just a given; they can’t be expected to understand something that isn’t part of mainstream culture in Japan.
2) Social obligation. If you’re working you’re obligated to do a lot of socialising and this will involve meat. Group harmony is extremely important in Japan so if you don’t fit in with the group (i.e. you can’t eat what everyone else is eating) then it disrupts the harmony. People will go out of their way for you and you end up feeing terrible about this. It just generally disrupts the group harmony, if that makes sense.
3) Everything has meat in it. Potato chips, salad dressing, convenience food. You’ll find stuff like chicken or fish or pork in it all. Japanese food uses fish stock so it’s hard to eat out. Since people don’t understand vegetarianism you’ll have to explain very carefully about your diet. They might still not understand. They might give you gifts involving meat (just smile and say thank you and regift).
4) Language. You’ll need to have a good grasp of the language to explain your diet and to read labels. Otherwise you’ll unintentionally eat a lot of meat. You’ll also have to be vigilant. Items on menus may appear vege-friendly but I always check with the staff before ordering. I usually go through a whole list of stuff since the Japanese word for fish doesn’t mean all sea creatures. Even if you say “I don’t eat meat.” They might ask, “What about bacon?” This can go on a whole so language is important!
5) Just in my experience, most vegetarians who come here don’t stay veges for long.
But all that said, it’s still completely possible to be vegetarian or vegan here :) There are loads of places to eat in Tokyo and loads of places that sell vegetarian products. It’s probably more expensive than eating meat, but you never have to worry when McDs has a chicken nugget scandal :P It also forces you to improve your languages skills!
