The Truth Behind Persona 4's MEAT OBSESSION (Japanese Context Explained)

whether it be via Chie or one of the many townsfolk the topic of meat especially beef was never in short supply in Persona 4. some of the biggest attractions in town included Aya's Mega beef bowl and sozai daigaku steak kurokes and yes I intentionally pronounce that the Japanese way so what exactly was up with the meat in Inaba and was there any significance to those strange rumors and questions that began circulating over its Origins well yeah and I think the answer is twofold the first of which involves Japan's long-storied history over meat consumption or more like the lack thereof while the second part is much more speculative on my end but I can't help but see parallels in P4 and the real life mad cow disease scare that was going on in early and mid-2000s Japan but before that I want to point your attention to the party members personas as well as the deities we fight in the final months of the game these figures drive home the idea that Persona 4 is deeply entrenched in traditional Japanese beliefs and Customs especially as they pertain to the indigenous Shinto creation myths in particular Shinto is considered a nature religion and one of the major conflicts in Inaba involves the inevitable modernization of the rural town which forces a confrontation between the old Japanese way of life and the new concepts of an increasingly globalized era as symbolized by juness an interview with director hashino himself confirmed his team's intent on creating a rural and traditionally Japanese setting to contrast the urban setting of persona 3. with this in mind it's very fitting that meat played such a major background Topic in Persona 4. since the consumption of it especially of four-legged animals has historically been viewed as unclean due to Shinto and Buddhist beliefs and though these two religions have flip-flopped in prominence over the archipelago's history overall they've both been viewed as the traditional Japanese way of life as opposed to more modern introductions like the monotheistic religion of Christianity first brought by Portuguese missionaries in the 1500s though I should clarify that Japanese people today don't really see themselves as religious regarding the East Asian beliefs but simply as just observers of tradition anyway I'll come back to this topic of Christianity in a bit but first I want to cover the eras prior to the first westerners arriving on Japanese Shores so the first major ban on meat was imposed in 675 CE by Emperor tenmue this prohibited the consumption of beef horse dog monkey and chicken or basically any flesh animal in regards to Buddhism killing animals was seen as wrong especially since it was believed that even humans could be reincarnated into them and as per Japan's indigenous religion Shinto the meat of mammals was seen as unclean being a nature religion Shinto held much respect for the Island's natural geography so fish slash Seafood were not included in the prohibition since they were just seen as a naturally abundant and Convenient Food Source for Japan adding on to the geography it's generally very mountainous meaning it wasn't a very efficient use of the land to raise animals for consumption this stands in contrast to many Western Nations that had large grasslands and or fields that were conducive to raising cattle for food on this note I'd be remiss not to mention the Portuguese missionaries that arrived in the late sengoku era and how the newly formed shogunate held deep skepticism of their outside influence this mostly had to do with Tokugawa ieyasu's weariness of Western countries colonization of other nations around the world as well as his distrust of organized religions which meant that Christianity would be closely tied to the Portuguese Cuisine that largely included meat remember at this time eating four-legged animals was still considered unclean and even drinking milk would come to be viewed as if drinking the animal's blood in a similar vein to how Catholics already partake in communion so this was just another xenophobic strike against westerners in the eyes of the shogunate there were still pockets of other peoples like the native ainu of Hokkaido as well as the ryukyu kingdom in Okinawa that still ate some form of wild meat like wild boar deer and fowl but otherwise to spare you guys an even longer history lesson the main takeaway is that Japan historically did not raise nor domesticate animals for consumption instead the diet was largely plant-based with fish and seafood as a supplement if you guys want to read more about this stuff in detail though especially the exceptions I've left a link to a good PDF in the description now fast forwarding to the Meiji restoration modernization was automatically associated with the welcomed influence of the Americans and British one major goal of this new Meiji government was the building of a strong Army and Emperor Meiji believed that the meat-rich diet of westerners would strengthen Japanese men so to begin normalizing this Cuisine he broke the 1200 year ban on meat in 1872 by eating beef for New Year's this actually prompted a major protest by some Buddhist monks four of which were killed while trying to break into the Imperial Palace other anti-meat-eating movements cropped up during this time but ultimately they were no match in preventing the Japanese diet's eventual adoption of meat so to reiterate I think it's so fitting that out of any of the modern Persona games the one that highlights the rural Japanese way of life is the one that has this ongoing topic about meat circulating throughout the dichotomy between the age-old izanami and traditional Inaba and the continuing modernization of Japan via junez and their low prices and large selection of cuts perfectly builds off the real world evolution of the Japanese diet we all know that rural towns in general are always behind when it comes to the adoption of new stuff so even though Japan has steadily increased its consumption of meat over the many decades especially post-world War II The increased need for foreign exports of meat didn't quite grow substantially until more outer lying towns and suburbs began demanding it as well this brings me to the second major topic of this video even if it falls into the more coincidental speculation territory in the early and mid-2000s Japan there was quite the media frenzy over mad cow disease this was one of the major topics that was circulating in the real life press throughout Persona 4's development and considering how the game's themes really lean into misleading media portrayals and how easily rumors and misinformation can spread I can't help but see a few particular instances of mad cow related news as reflections of this but before I dive into the stuff I first want to briefly clarify the main points that defined this Public Health Emergency just so I'm not guilty of spreading misinformation or unwarranted paranoia so starting in 1986 there was a pretty bad scare over what's called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE for short or as it was known in layman terms mad cow disease this BSE outbreak was first reported in Britain and over the course of 15 years 180 000 cattle were fatally decommissioned from their Shores alone during this time other countries would report cases of BSC as well since contaminated cattle feed was shipped all around the world now this obviously devastated the livelihoods of a ton of farming communities and caused much physical suffering for the animals but the most tragic part of this all started in 1996 with the discovery of a human variant that was passed on Via eating contaminated beef this fatal neurodegenerative condition would come to be known as a variant of the existing Freud spelled Jacob disease and over the next decade more than a hundred people worldwide would die from it so now that we have some basic background covered I can now get into how this affected Japan in particular the first real signs of Japanese anxiety over BSE cropped up in 2001 with the first reported case coming from within the country this was the same year in which Japan had already begun Banning meat from many countries especially those from within the EU then later in 2003 there was another heightened scare when the U.S started to report their own cases of BSE and in response a ban was imposed on U.S beef as well then at last the growing public paranoia peaked in February of 2005 when Japan tragically saw its first human case of someone passing away from the brain wasting illness of variant cjd since symptoms of this condition normally take years to develop medical officials were still trying to rule out everything they could they were still investigating the short period of time that this victim lived in Britain back in 1989 but by this point the damage via the media was already done apparently the first article to cover the story misreported that the man died directly from BSE which only affects cattle I unfortunately can't find a link to the original article anymore but this one from the wsj alludes that the mistake was corrected fairly quickly but we all know now in our social media dominated and post-covered world how basically impossible it is to roll back misinformation and so considering how there was such care in properly distinguishing between BSE affecting cattle and variant cjd affecting humans in past reports this supposed new information that didn't line up with the stated science facts at the time just added more unnecessary confusion paranoia and fear there's even this study from 2009 that measured the anxiety levels of the Japanese populace as it pertained to media coverage of mad cow disease which you can find a link to in the description so with this all said I know that Persona 4's meat narrative fails to reflect this real life topic exactly but the in-game rumors about what the meat could possibly be or even where is it coming from like how real life bans on Imports happened along with the growing paranoia about it all as the fog rolled in just seemed to create a similarly anxious atmosphere of the Mad Cow years I mean my own mom was always very easy going but I remember how cautious she would be about what prefecture the meat was coming from during our summer stays in Japan in the 2000s but now I want to pass off a question to you guys do any of you remember your parents or even yourselves taking BSE precautions in your own countries since you know it affected many worldwide but on a final personal anecdote as you can probably see from my videos cultural Nuance has always been such a fascinating topic to me and on this topic of meat if my mom did eat beef she always preferred minced meat kind of stuff like meatloaf and Salisbury steak since Japanese ham bagu steak is very similar to that which by the way I am aware that the original dish is literally called Hamburg steak it's just that full Cuts have always been rather expensive in Japan where she grew up in comparison to the US but ground meat has always been much more affordable on the other hand the sansei and Yonce of my dad's side of the family have always really loved just plain old steak my uncle makes a homemade roast for all of us every Christmas and I know this sounds pretty bougie but whenever we have other extended family celebrations or get-togethers the go-to is a steakhouse but with that all said final question time to all the omnivores and carnivores watching if there was a ban on meat what kind would you miss the most also please like this video if you liked it it seriously helps And subscribe for a ton more Persona 4 in Japanese context stuff I've got cooking check out all my other socials and support the channel when buying the finest organic and fair trade tea with my link to Art of tea down in the description finally I want to give a huge thanks to all my patrons for their support especially big clingy Sam bed Jack Francesco santoyo Rego 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Channel: LadyVirgilia

Views: 20,176

Keywords: p4g, persona 4 golden, persona sociocultural context, persona 4 analysis, persona 4 japanese context, persona 4 golden analysis, ladyvirgilia, persona 4 meat, persona 4

Id: H3mo5KBgCn8

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2023