Japan Facing a Rising China: Food Safety as a Framework for Japanese Identity Formation

• Authors: Tina Walravens
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

As a flag of national identity, food provides a promising referential framework through which a sense of belonging is communicated, negotiated and challenged. In this article, I focus on the nexus between food safety and identity, and more particularly on the question of how food safety incidents regarding imported Chinese goods have affected the formation of Japanese national identity. Japanese government agencies long claimed that Japan’s regulatory system and import measures guarantee the safest food in the world. On the public as well as the elite level, discourse about food scandals (especially when directed against a clear ‘Other’) thus represent a very promising and fruitful source for defining changing national identities.

Keywords

EN

National identity formation; Food safety; Sino-Japanese relations; Food scandals; Food security

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 26
• Pages: 115-135

Contributors

author

Tina Walravens

• Ghent University