Allison

This article mainly talks about how important obento takes part in Japanese nursery school students, their mothers’ life and the society.

Obentos are boxed lunches Japanese mothers make for their nursery school children, which fill with mothers’ love and care to their children. Every obento that children take to school is well organized, and full nutrition contained, Japanese mother also very care about whether their children like the obento or not, such as the taste of obento, even the appearance. Therefore the obento is so important to both sides, the children who eat it and the mother who make it. When the first day student come to school, they need to adopt the school, the obento is just as a support of their mother to them. On the other side, even the obento taste not as good as other schoolmate, the children should and would still eat it, because it was made by their mother and their teacher taught them they should finish it.

The entire Japanese society considers obento culture is so important to the children to learn how to the social order, and be an organized person in a group. For instance, the Japanese teachers concern the student more on how long and how well they finish the obento than how they behave in the school. By this way, the children learn to be with others, think like others, and act in tandem with others. Most of the magazine that market on the housewives usually involved the recipes, hints, pictures and ideas of obento.