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Nutrition as National Defense: Japan's Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition, 1920–1940
- The Journal of Japanese Studies
- Society for Japanese Studies
- Volume 45, Number 1, Winter 2019
- pp. 1-29
- 10.1353/jjs.2019.0001
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
This article explores the early history of nutrition science and nutritional activism in Japan, 1920–40, focusing on the role of the Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition (IGIN). I argue that the IGIN, the world's first government-sponsored nutrition institute, was a manifestation and key instrument of Japan's state-led program of national nutrition as civilization and national defense. The IGIN's successes in science and dietary reform were viewed as a triumph, an indication that Japan had surpassed the West in the most fundamentally modern and rational of pursuits, science—and specifically nutrition science, a critical technology of nation building.