Taking Responsibility for 'Food Security' Discussed at the Doko Cup from the Front Lines

The other day, I received the Fuji Television Cup at the Doko Cup All-Japan Youth Speech Contest.
The theme was 'A Changing World and the Japanese Dining Table: Thinking About Food Security'.

I am honestly incredibly happy to have been recognized.
However, at the same time, I have a strong feeling that there was much more that I couldn't say in those eight minutes of my speech.
At the Doko Cup, I spoke about the necessity of reforming the food distribution structure.

And I also feel that the core of this content lies not on the podium, but in the daily front lines.

Today, I would like to write about that.

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▪️Why I decided to speak about this

I once worked at a central wholesale market as a local government employee.
Currently, I have quit my job as a civil servant and am helping out at my family's yakitori restaurant.

Regarding this choice,
'Why did you quit a stable job?'
'What a waste,' I am often told.

However, my thinking is very simple.

Food security is already quietly beginning to collapse from the front lines.
And I am the one who understands the front lines in this field---!!!
That is why I felt this way.

Because since I was in kindergarten, the space in front of the yakitori grill has been my living room.
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▪️Food security is not a story about war

The term 'food security' tends to sound like a distant story.
If a war happens.

If imports stop.
If an emergency occurs.
However, what is happening on the front lines is a much more modest and quiet change.

It is that the people responsible are disappearing in peacetime.
—

▪️


Chicken shops are decreasing year by year

In fact, wholesale dealers who handle chicken, so-called 'chicken shops,' are definitely decreasing year by year.It is not a flashy bankruptcy.It doesn't even make the news.

Aging, lack of successors, limits on capital investment, the reality of being unable to pass on costs.

For these reasons, they quietly close their shops, saying, 'I can't continue anymore.'
This means that the layer that has supported the 'middle' of food distribution is thinning out without a sound.

—
▪️


Morning-slaughtered chicken, an extremely thin lifeline


Our shop only handles chicken slaughtered in the morning.

When considering freshness, safety, quality, and taste, there was no other option.However, the number of dealers who can stably handle this morning-slaughtered chicken can be counted on one's fingers even in Osaka.Morning-slaughtered chicken only works when everything is in place:• Night/early morning processing

• Advanced hygiene management

• Immediate logistics

• Human judgment
If even one of these stops, it cannot be easily replaced.

Even in a major city like Osaka, this important distribution channel is already losing its redundancy.
—
▪️

Yakitori restaurants might be the front line of national security



'Yakitori restaurants and national security?'
You might think that.
But I seriously think so.

• Where does domestic chicken come from?

• How much does feed depend on imports?• How many days will it last if distribution stops?• Can small shops withstand that change?These questions are not posed in conference rooms, but in the kitchen every day.

Yakitori restaurants are not the 'end' of food distribution.
Rather, I believe they are the front line supporting the nation's food.

—
▪️

I believe yakitori culture is Japanese culture itself


Chicken culture is very old in Japan.
Its history dates back to the Heian period.

On the other hand, a full-scale meat-eating culture like beef and pork only spread after the Meiji era.
I believe yakitori is a food culture unique to Japan that:

• Is not a special dish
• But is everywhere in town

• Is rooted in daily life

• Has been passed down through generationsMorning-slaughtered chicken disappears, chicken shops disappear, and yakitori restaurants can no longer continue.Isn't that not just an industry problem, but a process where a part of Japanese culture is quietly being lost?—

▪️


I think the fact that restaurants are operating energetically is food security itself


Restaurants operating energetically.
That is not just a matter of the economy or the food service industry.
In modern times, where women's participation in society is advancing, single-person households are increasing, and the burden of home cooking is growing, eating out and ready-made meals have already become part of the life infrastructure.
'I can't cook today, so I'll eat out.'

'It's difficult to prepare a single portion every day.'

Countless restaurants in town quietly support such daily choices.
That is why I feel that the state of restaurants being able to operate energetically is what underpins Japan's food security.
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Conclusion
The disappearance of restaurants is not a story about one shop closing.

• The receptacle for food decreases

• The exit for distribution narrows• Diversity of procurement is lost• Daily choices decreaseIt also means that the 'food durability' of society as a whole is being gradually eroded from the ground up.

Dealers handling morning-slaughtered chicken are decreasing, chicken shops are disappearing year by year, and yakitori restaurants are facing that change on the front lines.
That is why I think.

Yakitori restaurants are not the 'end' of food distribution.
Rather, they might be the front line of national security.
At least, for me, who thinks about daily procurement, faces changes in distribution, and stands in the kitchen, it is definitely so.