It has taken the worst recession since the war to force Japan’s kitchen-phobic white-collar workers, known as salarymen, to get in touch with their inner chef.
Falling wages, slashed bonuses and fear of redundancy have shrunk household budgets, and for a growing number of workers that means cutting down lunchtime trips to the local sushi or ramen joint. Instead, almost 10 percent of men now take bento boxed lunches to work in an attempt to save money, according to a survey by a Japanese bank.
And in a sign of the shifting power relationships in Japanese households, many of the men now seem happy to wake up early and cross the kitchen threshold to create their own bento ensemble, typically grilled fish, rice, pickles and an omelet, all lovingly arranged in a compartmentalized box.
Despite his popular image as a formidable corporate warrior during office hours, the average salaryman is far more docile when it comes to household finances. About 40 percent of salarymen hand over their monthly pay to their wives, who dish out pocket money for essentials such as lunch, manga comics, canned coffee, cigarettes and after-hours bonding sessions over beer and sake.
But, according to the survey, average monthly allowances have fallen over the past year to about 45,000 yen (US$490), well down on the 76,000 yen (US$830) at the height of Japan’s economic bubble almost 30 years ago.
The bento craze has spawned a new range of sleek black or metallic lunchboxes with matching chopsticks, clearly designed with the younger salaryman in mind.
Bento box sales in Tokyo have doubled over the past year as male office workers join aficionados among their female colleagues.
An array of books, including the bestselling Danshi Gohan (Food for Men), guide hapless amateur cooks through the minefield of assembling nutritious and aesthetically pleasing boxed lunches. Others get recipe advice from What Did You Eat Yesterday?, a manga about the dietary habits of two cohabiting men, or hone their cooking skills at weekly evening classes.
Masafumi Ono, a business software developer, eschews restaurant lunches in favor of a bento he makes himself. “I used to eat out all the time, but since I got married and had a child I have had to be more frugal,” he said as he settled down to lunch in the Tokyo sunshine.
Ono, 33, uses leftovers from the previous night’s dinner and reckons he is saving between US$220 and US$330 a month.
His bento comprises a rolled omelet, mini-hamburger, fish sausage, sauteed mushrooms, pickled radish and rice with seaweed on top.
Chuji Takeda, who works for a medical supplier, has been less ambitious. “My son is studying overseas, spending my money, so I have to count the pennies by making this sorry excuse for a bento,” the 49-year-old said as he looked down on his meager offering of rice ball, hard-boiled egg and pickles.
The intricately arranged bento of today is a far cry from the original version from the Kamakura period (1185 to 1333), which was often nothing more than a clump of dried or boiled rice eaten on the hoof.
The bento took on a more refined look around the 19th century, when rice balls were packed into woven bamboo boxes and consumed during breaks in Noh and Kabuki performances in theaters.
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