How Japanese School Lunch is Served

Oct 24 2008 • Japanese School Lunch

For a little over half a year, I’ve cataloged Japanese school lunches. I’ve covered the history but I’ve never really given an in-depth explanation of how these lunches are set up. Part of this has been due to my unofficial image policy¹ but after realizing the kids at this particular school generally stay masked for the entire time, I figured it would be okay.

Just a quick disclaimer: I can only write about from observation so this should not be considered the nation-wide standard. Schools also vary in their routine based on school size and grade level. Everything written is a compilation of the various schools I work at.

Step 1: Organizing the students

At the beginning of the day, students decide which groups will be responsible for what. For school lunch, there are generally 2 groups. The first group is responsible for carrying/distributing the lunch. They are required to wear clean white coats, hats to keep their hair back, and a face mask. The second group is responsible for setting up the lunch distribution tables and wiping down the desks. The students usually eat in their classroom groups (4-6, depending on the size of the class) and make a table by turn their desks to face each other.

Step 2: Carrying the lunch back

The lunch is carried back in its separate containers:

• The basket, containing all the dishes and chopsticks
• The rice or the bread container, metal, depending on the day
• The soup bucket, the heaviest of all the containers
• The main course container, metal
• The side dish container, metal
• The milk container
• A plastic bag containing containers of jam, furikake, fruit, or dessert, depending on the menu

Most elementary kids need 2 kids to carry them, particularly the soup bucket. They sometimes make the basket easier to carry by carrying the trays separately.

Step 3: Setting up the distribution line

The containers are laid out in the following order: trays, chopsticks, main dish, side dish, and soup. The milk and rice, which come in their own containers, are distributed to the desk-tables. Straws are also distributed with the milk.

If the kids are in elementary school, particularly grades 1-3, the teacher may help them set up and distribute the lunch. This ensures that the students get the portions right and don’t make a mess.

Step 4: Learning about portion control

With the exception of meat, the school lunch center generally doesn’t create the portions. The students are responsible for measuring out the side dish (usually vegetable) and the soup. The hardest thing is the soup because if there are special ingredients in it, like shrimp or quail eggs, the student has to try to give everyone the same number.

Step 5: Serving it up!

After the serving line is ready, the remaining students line up and start receiving their lunches. There’s a precise way of placing the various dishes on the tray, which the students learn in their first year. Typically, the rice goes on the lower left, the soup on the lower right, the side dish to the upper left, and the main dish on the upper right. The milk and any other extras, like jam or fruit, go wherever there’s space.

If there isn’t enough food or the portions were not dished out properly, one of the students will go around and take a little bit from any tray that looks like it received too much. Teachers will often volunteer their lunches first. However, the lunch center is pretty good about sending the right amount of food to each school.

And in the US

This system is very different from what I remember in the US. First, the iconic lunch lady is completely missing, unless you count the “school helper” (this is what they’ve called her in English) who hands out the containers to the kids after the lunch truck comes. Second, the kids actually have to work to get their lunch - no more leisurely walk down to the lunch room, whisk through the line, and only have to eat what’s served to you. Third, students are also responsible for cleaning up their own messes before and after lunch. I believe this keeps things much cleaner, both on the desk and on the floor.

It would be nearly impossible, not to mention impractical, at this point to implement any aspect mentioned above in the US. The biggest difference would be a loss of jobs, probably to both lunch ladies and custodians. However, quality of food aside (that’s another topic for another day), the US system wasn’t so bad.

More recently, my area has talked about actually using the individual school’s kitchens to prepare the lunch on site, due to the price of gas. It’s not a bad idea, considering how much driving some of the trucks have to do every day, as opposed to once a week for delivery of ingredients. I somehow doubt this will happen any time soon though.

1. I try to avoid images of my students - there’s a slim chance they could be identified but I don’t want to take that risk. [↩]

Related Posts

• Kyuushoku - Japanese School Lunch
• Japanese School Lunch: Week 25
• Japanese School Lunch: Week 24
• Japanese School Lunch: Week 23
• Japanese School Lunch: Week 22

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