Japan

July 19, 2026

Japan's national school lunch began in 1946 as donated skim milk children hated the smell of — the system it grew into now wastes food at about a quarter of the rate an American school cafeteria does

In the winter of 1946, occupied Japan's first school lunches were funded by a wartime relief agency and consisted of little more than tomato stew and a powdered milk many children disliked. Eight decades and two separate national laws later, more than 10 million Japanese schoolchildren serve, eat and clean up a full hot lunch every day, with a food waste rate of roughly 7% against about 30% in American school cafeterias.