breakfirst Between America and Japan

Ⅰ　Introduction

This paper researched about breakfast in Kumamoto and Minnesota. I made this report using a Google questionnaire. I asked 105 Americans and 84 Japanese. I needed to have more date, so I did questionnaire twice, once in three month and once in two month.

Ⅱ Results

The first question was how often Japanese and Americans usually eat breakfast. Interestingly, there was almost the same result between Kumamoto and Minnesota. Please see figs 1a and 1b. Over half eat breakfast every day, but less than half; (43 percent (Minnesota) 48 percent (Kumamoto))  do not eat breakfast. They show a result which says there are no obvious differences between Kumamoto and Minnesota. According to the graph for Minnesota, more Minnesotans eat breakfast every day than Japanese, but the gap is very small. So it seems that there is not a big difference between Kumamoto and Minnesota about eating breakfast. Please look at percentages for people who eat breakfast 2-4 times a week and almost every day. It seems students in Kumamoto skip breakfast a bit more often than students in Minnesota, but the gap is still very small.

・How often do you eat breakfast?

Fig 1a  Minnesota                               Fig. 1b  Kumamoto

The next question was do you have brunch? Brunch means eating meal time between breakfast and lunch. Please see fig 2. People who have brunch in Kumamoto total 74% and those who have brunch every day are 16%. However, there are no one who have brunch every day. Moreover, Americans have brunch once or twice in a week.  They show that Japanese tend to skip breakfast more than Americans.

Fig 2 Do you ever have brunch?

The next question was about what kind of breakfast they usually eat. It may be easy to guess this result. As is well known, Americans eat cereal more often than Japanese, and Japanese eat rice more often than Americans. This suggests the results of the survey. 65% of Americans eats cereal compared with only 11% of Japanese, but Japanese eat rice 71% better than Americans 2%. However some Japanese may be surprised about the results about bread. Please see Fig 3.  Interestingly, Japanese eat bread more than Americans 23% vs. 17%. It seems that eating bread at breakfast has become a very usual thing in Japan. This result may shows that culture from other countries have become habitual for by Japanese.

Fig 3 What do you usually eat at breakfast?

I can say the same thing about this result from my experiences. I usually eat bread or a rice ball every day in Japan, but when I was in Minnesota, I ate cereal, pancakes and so on. It still isn’t common in Japan to eat fruit [m2] at breakfast, so it may rare to find someone who eats fruit at breakfast. So this point shows us one example of US food culture which is not still accepted in Japan.

Look at Figs 4 a and b. This question waa whether they eat salad at breakfast. Here you can see interesting result. There was only one percent of Americans who eat salad at breakfast. However, there are 36 percent of Japanese who eat it at breakfast. It can be said that Japanese eat salad at breakfast instead of eating fruit like Americans.

 

Fig 4 a and b Do you eat salad at breakfast?

Cereal at a store in Kumamoto costs double the price in America: price in America is about $2 (200 yen), price in Japan is about $3 (300 yen) Because of the price, it may not be customary to eat cereal in Japan. The price effect may make this result. Another reason may be the timing of eating cereal. I asked “when do you eat cereal?”  Then there was very interesting result. Please look at fig 5. There are 52 % Japanese people who think cereal is morning food but 83 Americans think cereal is morning food.  This different thinking made this result.

Fig 5 When do you eat cereal?

                Then I asked about when they eat breakfast. There were many differences for this answer. Please see Fig. 6. 96 percent of Americans eat breakfast at 5:00-8:59, but 99 Japanese eat breakfast at 6:00-9:59. It is related to the time when their schools start. The first class of Bethel University starts earlier than at KGU (Bethel University: 07:40~, KGU: 09:00~), so Japanese don’t have to wake up and have breakfast as early as Americans. This is why there are these results. Maybe people who eat breakfast earlier than others live far away from school, so they must eat breakfast and go to school earlier than others. This thing can be said about results for both Minnesota and Japan.

               

Fig 6 When do you usually have breakfast?

The next question was “Who do you usually eat breakfast with?” The result was almost the same. Please see Fig. 7. Almost everyone eats breakfast alone, but there are students who eat breakfast with their friends only in Minnesota. The result may suggest students in Kumamoto prefer to eat with family more than friends, because if you eat breakfast with friends, you must pay money for it at restaurants or convenience stores. Students in Kumamoto may not like to pay money too much. It may be because they want to save money.

Fig 7 Who do you usually eat breakfast with?

Ⅲ　Conclusion

              When it comes to breakfast, there are many differences between Kumamoto’s students and Minnesota’s students. Over half of students in both Kumamoto and Minnesota eat breakfast every day, but Japanese students tend to eat later than Minnesota. The time when Japanese eat breakfast is not early, because it is related by the time when their first class starts. Probably students whose first class starts late don’t eat breakfast. They have brunch, so about half of all students in Japan do not eat breakfast.

On the other hand, students in Minnesota eat breakfast earlier than students in Kumamoto. The first class in Minnesota is earlier than Kumamoto’s first class, so they don’t eat brunch but breakfast. Therefore the rate of Americans who eat breakfast every day is a little higher than students in Kumamoto.

Finally, Americans eat cereal more than bread. Japanese eat salad better than fruit at breakfast. This result may surprise Japanese. Japanese think the typical American breakfast is French toast and milk. It can be seen as a stereotypes. I am not American, so I do not know how they think about Japanese breakfasts, but there must be stereotype for Japanese breakfast, and it may amaze them to learn the differences.

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