Abstract

As for the Japanese dietary style and dietary equipments, many are regarded, with the rice plant imported, as the influence of China and Korea, while traditional culture has recently changed in Japanese and Korean urban lives because of the increase of nuclear families and modernization of lives. Of 1,244 junior high school students of boys and girls in Tokyo and Seoul, we investigated the present situations of the employment of dining equipments October to November, 1987. The results obtained are as follows. More cases that each member of a family had his or her own dining equipment were found in Japan. The frequency of using chopsticks was high in both countries. Korean children, having no struggles, handled chopsticks better than Japanese children. As for the dishing-up of sidedishes, more than half of Japanese used their individual plates, while in Korean families they used whole dishes. As for the employment of dining equipments, Japanese people have established their own style because of the national character of delicacy and finicality. This kind of traditional habits were found much more in extended families than in nuclear families. In Korea, the traditional spirit and the broad-minded characteristics cherished in the continental circumstances were manifested in the employment of dining equipments and their strong national character will not easily accept the wave of modernization.

Keywords

• dining equipments;
• junior high school students;
• family style;
• national character