ABSTRACT
In 1984, the Japanese government ordered an inquiry into the declining use of chopsticks among schoolchildren. Preference for knives and forks was growing rapidly among children who wanted to eat faster and also become still more attuned to international patterns. The government hoped to encourage tradition as part of the sense of what a childhood both modern and Japanese should entail. Not a major historical moment, obviously, but an interesting comment on change and counterpressure in one of the most dynamic societies in modern world history.
