CURRENT APPROACHES
Recently, as eating disorders such as anorexia and obesity
increase among school children, there is a rising concern
of development of lifestyle-related diseases. In order to
sort out these problems, the Basic Law on Shokuiku
(Food and Nutrition Education) was enacted in 2005.
Under this law, Shokuiku is defined as acquisition of
knowledge about food and nutrition, as well as the ability
to make appropriate food choices through various experience
related to food, in order to develop people in the
ability to practice a healthy diet.3
Registered dietitians
and dietitians have been playing important roles to promote
Shokuiku program in various settings. And, in order
to enhance Shokuiku in particular at school setting, the
MEXT established the Diet and Nutrition Teacher System
in 2007. This system aims to promote the placement of
Diet and Nutrition Teachers in public elementary schools
and junior high schools in accordance with the needs of
local communities. Having both educational qualifications
and nutritional expertise, Diet and Nutrition Teachers
supervise school lunch programs, formulate menus,
and ensure hygiene standards. Besides, in cooperation
with homeroom teachers, they provide extensive instruction
in class as well as homeroom activities. They also
deal with dietary education issues in collaboration with
families, teachers, school doctors or dentists and other
nutrition experts (e.g. registered dietitian, dietitian). In
addition, as a nutrition expert, they provide tailor-made
guidance for children and families on obesity, faddy eating,
food allergies and other important issues on diets. As
of April 2011, 3,853 Diet and Nutrition Teachers are currently
assigned in schools all over the country (Figure 1).2
In these schools, several positive impacts have been reported
in terms of health and dietary habits among school
children, such as a decrease in the number of absent students,
an increase of the number of children who eat
breakfast, a reduced amount of leftover at lunch.4-6
However, there still remains a problem of manpower
shortage; only about 12% of schools have Diet and Nutrition
Teachers. MEXT recognizes the importance of this
problem, and takes it as primary task to increase Diet and
Nutrition Teachers, so as to promote Shokuiku effectively