Junko Hosoi is a yoga teacher, translator and avid runner. In fact, she founded the Japan Vegan Runners Club. She helped me understand what it’s like to be a vegetarian in Japan while I was researching the 2012 edition of Vegetarian Asia: A Travel Guide. Here’s our interview, which was conducted via email in January, 2012.

Junko Hosoi, founder of the Japan Vegan Runners Club

Teresa: What do you think is the current attitude toward veganism/vegetarianism in Japan?

Junko: The majority of the Japanese people are still very indifferent about veg*nism; they have never met vegetarians or never think such people exist. Or people assume vegetarians are always foreigners, never Japanese, or people who cannot eat meat because of their religious reasons or health issues. In that sense, people know very little about vegetarianism/veganism.

On the bright side, the number of vegan/vegetarian restaurants and cafes is increasing, mainly in big cities, and a growing number of young people are becoming vegetarians and active in activities such as the vegetarian festivals held in Kyoto and Tokyo. Although these annual festivals are not too huge, they are lively, on solid ground, and popular among the vegetarian community and people who are interested in such a lifestyle. Nagoya, a city in between Kyoto and Tokyo, also started a similar annual festival last year. I feel that more people become interested in veganism/vegetarianism from consciousness toward healthy eating habit and ecological living rather than animal rights, and then later they realize the animal issues. But this is only my subjective point of view, so I could be wrong. On another note, the Japan Vegetarian Society runs a Meat Free Monday campaign  through their activities.

Teresa:  How did you decide to give up meat and how was your choice accepted by family and friends?

Junko: Through my practice of yoga, I read a book written by an Indian saint, and one of the chapters in the book was about vegetarianism explained from many points of view, not only ahimsa (non violence) but also various aspects such as climate change, factory farming, world hunger, etc. When I read the chapter, I decided to become vegetarian. Then next year, I became vegan. My family accepted it very well. My parents made maybe a couple of complaints but that was it. I do not live with my parents, but when I go home, our dinner tends to be just vegan. My parents do not eat so much meat either, and they are fine eating simple traditional vegan Japanese foods. So I feel lucky about the family situation.

As for friends, I already had yogi friends, and they understood my choice easily although most of them were not veg*n. After I became vegetarian/vegan, I started making more vegetarian/vegan friends through vegetarian related activities and I started hanging out with more vegetarian people than non-vegetarian friends. I also started a group called Japan Vegan Runners Club, and through the running activities, I made good vegetarian connections.  So people whom I hang out with naturally changed, and I did not need to seek acceptance.

Teresa:  How do you think Japanese people see their relationship with animals?

Junko: I think Japanese people love pet/companion animals, but are indifferent about animals they eat and/or exploit. People reason that we need to eat life, including plants and animals so that we should thank the food (life) and should never waste it. But the reality is, I think, most people never question what they eat really and how they exploit the lives of animals. Celebrities openly talking about animal rights, veganism, anti-fur, etc. like in the U.S. or in Europe is almost non-existent in Japan as if it were a taboo subject in their industry (I guess it IS a taboo in fact, or they just have no clue).

As for the pet situation, owning an expensive animal seems like a fashion. It is almost sickening in my opinion seeing all those designer dogs in people’s bags and baby animals sold in pet shops. Public awareness toward animal testing and the fur/leather industry seems to be still very behind compared to other industrialized countries, although there are activists and animal rights groups very active in these areas like JAVA (Japan Anti-Vivisection Association) and Animal Rights Center . This is only my subjective point of view plus I myself am not an activist in the animal issues so I cannot comment much on this topic.

Teresa:  Any advice for travelers to Japan?

Junko: Eating out in the big cities like Tokyo and Kyoto is fairly easy because there are many vegan/vegetarian restaurants. Trying Shojin Ryori at an old temple should be interesting, too, to see what the traditional Japanese vegan cuisine is like. The Japanese streets and addresses can be tricky, and the directions to the small vegetarian café you are heading for might be complicated, so prior research is advisable. There are some very useful online directories. VegeTokyo  has a good list of English directories on their top page. If you eat at a non-veg*an place, you should know that many Japanese dishes contain fish stock even though they don’t contain any meat. Izakaya (Japanese bar) -type of place may be useful because they have lots of small dishes and some of them can be easily veg*n. Buying processed foods at a regular market or a convenience store may be difficult for travelers who don’t read or speak Japanese. Seemingly vegan foods might contain animal ingredients, and sometimes even Japanese cannot tell by looking at the ingredients list (I have made mistakes, too). If you are not sure (and if you are a strict veg*n), you should ask someone, but you should be aware sometimes they might make a mistake (or they don’t really care too much) because highly processed foods have so many additives that you cannot easily guess the real source of each ingredient. I think this is not unique to Japan; this can be true anywhere in the world. If you are not sure, I recommend buying simple foods with little processing and few ingredients, or unprocessed fresh vegetables and fruits (Japanese fruits are generally very good!). If you go to a natural food market (there are a plenty of those at least in the big cities; not necessarily vegetarian, though), the staff are knowledgeable so they can advise on your veg*n needs.

Lastly, come join my running club for jogging in central Tokyo and/or a good vegan carbo-loading after the run!