Allison

In the article, “Japanese Mothers and Obentos”, Anne Allison expound how lunch-box works as a state apparatus in Japan. Lunch-box is an important part of Japanese culture. Such kind of food culture implies two roles: a right way to do things and the one who prepares the food. For a long period of time, this food convention connects with social order and the role gender plays in Japanese society. There are a number of codes contained in small lunch-boxes, which include smallness, separation, fragmentation, opposition and so on.

School, children and mothers are connected by lunch-boxes. Similar to language, clothes and other cultural massagers, lunch-boxes express and implant state ideology in various Japanese schools. They are utilized to socialize children and mothers into gendered roles and subjectivities they are expected to assume. On the one side, lunch-boxes are symbols of mother and home. On the other side, they imply social requirements and expectations on mother and children. From lunch-box, we can see the way Japanese understand the nature, and their social structure. According to the author, the message of the obento is a precise world structure; therefore, every Japanese should keep a precise and strict attitude to their work and lives. Furthermore, each one has his or her role in the society. Finally, in the obento food culture, women take care of children’s diet as well as offer the ideological support of the culture.