Japanese school lunch system for Muslims

by Kiho Muroga
(Tokyo, Japan)

I had a friend who was from Saudi Arabia and who was a Muslim when I was an elementary school student. In elementary school, we were provided a school lunch.

The school lunch was fixed by a regular menu. Therefore, every student was provided the same menu. As you know, Muslims cannot eat pork because the pig is a symbol of God.

But, our school lunch had a lot of pork menu, for example, pork curry, grilled pork and so on. In addition, slices of ham in salad are also pork.

So my Muslim friend couldn't eat a lot of the menu, and on “bad days” which had a menu like pork curry and ham salad, he couldn't eat almost any of menu.

I think the Japanese school lunch system is good, but also has defects. The system should be changed a bit for the people of every religion.