Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World

by Vaclav Smil

But these two relatively low intakes are a part of what I see as by far the most important explanatory factor, as Japan’s true exceptionalism: the country’s remarkably moderate average per capita food supply. While food balance sheets of virtually all affluent Western nations (be it the US or Spain, France or Germany) show a daily availability of 3,400–4,000 kilocalories per capita, the Japanese rate is now below 2,700 kilocalories, roughly 25 percent lower. Of course, actual average consumption cannot be at a 3,500-kilocalorie-per-day level (only hard-working, big-stature men might need that much), but even after an indefensibly high share of food waste, this high supply translates into excessive eating (and obesity). In contrast, studies of actual food intakes show that the Japanese daily mean is now below 1,900 kilocalories, commensurate with age distribution and physical activity of the aging Japanese population. This means that perhaps the single most important explanation of Japan’s longevity primacy is quite simple: moderate overall food consumption, the habit expressed in just four kanji characters, 腹八分目 (hara hachi bun me, “belly eight parts [in ten] full”)—an ancient Confucian precept, and hence yet another import from China. But the Japanese, unlike the banqueting and food-wasting Chinese, actually do practice it.