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Answerman - Is It Possible To Eat Gluten-Free In Japan?

As far as I remember, Japan has had no tolerance for people with food "problems", and they pretty much believe that everyone is simply picky, and being picky in Japan is a serious NO.
We have seen this in most, if not all, anime with any kind of food involved, with the classic "proverb": Picky eaters don't grow strong.
It might seem pretty innocent and actually good to teach people about how bad it is to be picky, however, many seem to forget that kids that don't eat something might do it for a reason, and the Japanese tend to ignore that, attributing it to them being picky eaters and nothing else.
There are plenty of horror stories related to this, as many as there are related to hair color, or being too tall, and it all comes down to THE Japanese proverb "the nail that sticks out, must be hammered down", meaning, anyone that stands out must be standarized, be it with their cooperation, or against their will.

According to the Finnish Coeliac Society soy sauce is gluten-free because the (wheat) gluten in the soy sauce breaks down during the fermentation process.

And what about people with religious (not health-related) restrictions on food, like Muslims and Jews?

So are the Japanese just not given to shellfish allergies, or are cross-contamination controls more widely respected than this particular answerman makes it sound?

And what about people with religious (not health-related) restrictions on food, like Muslims and Jews?

I don't know if that's so, but if it is, the conflicting information may be because not all soy sauce is fermented, at least in the US. If you see "hydrolized soy protein" on the ingredient list, it was manufactured in a few days, not the months or years good soy sauce is brewed for. Even "naturally brewed" brands like Kikkoman may not have been brewed to Japanese standards timewise for international consumption, so maybe it takes a long fermentation period to break down the gluten?

And what about people with religious (not health-related) restrictions on food, like Muslims and Jews?

harminia wrote:

I have a slight gluten intolerance (mostly if I eat bread, though I eat it anyway because I'm a rebel), but the bread in Japan isn't as bad as the bread in the west (in my case, Australia). Apparently it has lower levels of gluten or something.

I hope that's the case that Japan processes their food in a more natural way than America, because we're planning a trip in 2020 and my sister has an intolerance to practically everything under the sun, but gluten, corn and white rice affect her the worst (what with corn and grains being some of our most highly processed foods). With the amount of white rice the Japanese eat it's going to become a big problem real quickly if her body doesn't adjust to it well enough.

Are people nowadays really having difficulties processing glutens in their system as a result of a rise in coeliac disease or is this just another diet craze?

I think a problem is a lot of people are realising they have gluten intolerances on some level, and now that there are lots of gluten-free foods being made, they find it better to eat those. I know of people whose mood is effected by gluten, and a lot of people who don't have celiac disease suffer problems like bloating or (in my case) acid reflux type problems. Also I think it's a view that going gluten-free is probably healthier anyway.

Gluten causes me to have seizures.