Quick question for all you dopers in Japan. I took a trip to Japan last week(cool country btw, great people.) and noticed quite a bit of dairy products.(Hell I even bought a quart of milk for my corn flakes. BTW, you haven’t lived until you trek up to Osaka castle and see concesion stands selling ice cream and cokes in the castle courtyard.) Anyway I though most Japanese were lactose intolerant. So what’s the deal? How are they able to digest dairy products.(All I know is my bro’s girlfriend got this cup of milk with ice cubes made of frozen coffee and I was surprised it didn’t put her in agony. Oh yes, she Japanese.)
Cecil says that 90% of Asians are lactose intolerant, but as you observe, that doesn’t appear to be the case here in Japan. You might be interested in some diary consumption statistics from here. Interestingly, Japan produces roughly as much milk as Africa and China put together.
I see milk all the time for sale in China. They drink it hot.
While you can find milk in Southern China if you look for it, it is definitely not part of their habitual diet and the amount consumed per capita is tiny compared to western countries. I see it in the more upscale supermarkets where the better-off do their grocery shopping, not is the traditional markets. Yoghurt is sold as a novelty thing.
The Chinese like to drink even hot water and it is something I have learnt to appreciate. Hot beverages feel more filling. I have also found the Chinese will eat hot cheese on pizza but many would not eat cold cheese as we do.
Actually, milk is quite common throughout china, especially among the younger generation. Sailor, got to disagree with you on the yogurt, from when I first set foot in China in 1985, you could buy yogurt in all the big cities for sure. With UHT, you can find milk everywhere, and the local neighborhood little stand has it for sale.
Well, just to throw more anectdotal evidence onto the pile, I spent some time in Hong Kong and southern China a few years ago and all I saw was soy milk. My friend took me to an “American style” restaurant where I ordered what I thought was a baked potato with sour cream. What I got, though, was a backed potato slathered with mayonnaise. Later, we went to an “Italian style” restaurant where I thought I ordered pasta with alfredo sauce. Once again, however, I got mayonnaise. My friend explained that “nobody” in HK ate dairy products. I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s certainly not common.
My wife, on the other hand, is from northern China (near Beijing). She also claims that few people there consume dairy products. There is, according to her, a single pizza restaurant in the area that some people visit, but that’s about it.
Of course, maybe things are different in different parts of China. My wife’s never been to Shanghai, and I keep telling her that she has to stop speaking on behalf of all Chinese worldwide when she says that “all Chinese people do this…”
Barry
It’s possible to consume dairy products even while being lactose intolerant. Basically, you can manipulate your intestinal bacteria into digesting lactose, leaving the rest of the dairy for you. To wit:
I can’t find the title of the book that this quote is from, but the paper being referred to is Johnson AO, Semenya JG, Buchowski MS, Enwonwu CO, and Scrimshaw NS (1993), Adaptation of lactose maldigesters to continued milk intake, American Journal of Nutrition 58:897-881.
Anyway, taking a daily tablespoon of milk for a week let the subjects drink at least 1 glass of milk a day without ill effects. Essentially, the researchers selected for lactose-digesting intestinal bacteria by introducing small amounts of milk into the diets of the subjects.
In the case of the Japanese, I would say that even though most of the dairy consumers are lactose intolerant, their intestinal bacteria probably took up the slack when they reached adulthood and lost their childhood ability to digest lactose.
Although that particular quote is not in it, Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living With Lactose Intolerance, by Steve Carper talks about the Johnson paper, lactose tolerance across cultures, the ability to adapt one’s colonic bacteria to lactose, and pretty much everything else dealing with LI. It supports what **
Sinungaling** says.
Although that particular quote is not in it, Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living With Lactose Intolerance, by Steve Carper talks about the Johnson paper, lactose tolerance across cultures, the ability to adapt one’s colonic bacteria to lactose, and pretty much everything else dealing with LI. It supports what **
Sinungaling** says.
Both of my Korean-born kids have Lactose problems. The Fem-Bot has been tested as Lactose Intolerant. That’s what Lactaid tablets are for !
I will admit that this thread is a bit of a surprise, since Cecil’s dope is, of course, on the mark. 
In my experience, old people in Japan will generally not touch any dairy products whereas young kids have milk provided at school and seem to be crazy about cheese (although not much ‘good’ cheese available). However, they have lots more products that are supposed to aid your digestive system, such as ‘yakult’ and spend a lot more time talking about aiding their digestive system -when compared to westerners.
So Japan is gradually changing its diet to a meat and dairy one, therefore possibly their systems are slowly changing too, but many old people can’t and don’t join in due to lactose intolerance and distain for this style diet.
In Korea, milk availability was limited 15 or 20 years ago. Now there is a multitude of brands in every store. It is being heavily marketed as good for children. In fact, there is an “Einstein Milk” available which apparently is being touted as good for brain development. Low fat milk is also appearing. Older people are not fond of dairy products but soy milk products have been popular for many years.
I remember going to Japan with my marching band for the world championships. Everywhere I went; grocery stores, “corner” stores and other food places never seemed to have milk. I searched everwhere, and the closest I could get was soy milk.
Klockwerk where did you go? I lived in a tiny village in the far north and the only shop had milk! Perhaps you didn’t recognise it? Japanese milk seems to have a scarily long shelf life and doesn’t smell nice - although their school milk is nice.
This is odd, as milk is much easier to find than soy milk. I used to live in a tiny coastal village that had one general store and they had plenty of milk.
Not only that, but in all the elementary and junior high schools that I know, milk is part of the school lunch and the school nutritionists make sure that students drink their one portion a day. Even teachers drink milk.
However, if I’m to trust the few Japanese sites I’ve culled from Google, at least 80% of native Japanese are lactose intolerant, which gives credence to Sinungaling’s hypothesis. Especially since, in my experience, Japanese rarely have more than one portion of dairy products a day.
Jovan, did you read my post? Wasn’t I saying the same thing?
Have I missed something?
Did you live on the Nihon kai coast or the Pacific? Which prefecture? - just interested.
Yes, sorry, I should have added that it was for re-emphasis.
Ignore my location, though, as I’m only here for the summer, I live in Gifu prefecture. The little, tiny, hamlet where I lived a few years ago was on the Pacific side of Mie prefecture.
Actually, I like the taste of Japanese milk. The only thing that worries me is the greatly varying shelf life from brand to brand.
I’m starting to miss home.
OMG, did I just write “home”?
I was actually curious since I read that bit from Cecil about lactose intolerance. I didn’t have trouble finding milk while I was there, the AM/PM next to my hotel had plenty of it.(I was in Osaka but I think I mentioned that.) Also I think I’ve got a bit of a lactose problem so I was kind of curious for that reason as well. (I can get away with drinking a glass of milk before bed at night but a bowl of cereal will put me in agony if I don’t take lactase tablets with it.) Thanks for all the info so far, it’s been interesting.