Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this week held a press conference to address the nation about growing concerns over the Omicron variant of COVID-19. His message outlined the steps his administration is taking both to fight the spread of the disease and to assist both people and industries being affected economically by it.
And with regards to helping affected businesses, Kishida gave all the people of Japan a very specific example of what we can do to help: “I am asking the people of Japan to use milk in cooking and to drink cups of milk always through the New Year’s holiday in order to prevent a mass disposal.”
And so, the gauntlet has been thrown down, but will the citizens answer the call to drink and cook with more milk than ever before? To find out we checked online comments in response to the news.
“I hate milk.”
“How about you make it half price?”
“Just make cheap butter with it.”
“If you sell it at a discount, then you won’t have to throw it away.”
“I don’t want it. Why don’t they make cheese with it or something?”
“Make it 100 yen per liter and it’s a deal.”
“Why is milk getting the support of the Prime Minister?”
“They need to lead by example. I want to see every member of Parliament drinking a tall glass of milk in session.”
“I like soy milk better, but if they made yogurt with it I’d be interested.”
“Drinking milk straight is gross, but I’ll put it in my coffee as much as possible.”
That last person is on board at least, but it seems the public has spoken and the public mostly wants to haggle.
It seems when there’s a surplus of something, selling it at a reduced price would be the best way to minimize waste and cut costs or even turn a profit if done right.
The other questions are also valid, such as why they don’t just make one of the many possible dairy products with all that extra milk. Japan tends to undergo periodic butter shortages and this could be a good way to set up a reserve supply.
It’s unclear exactly why this isn’t being done but according to Kishida, the decrease in demand due to the pandemic has become severe, so perhaps the problem is so bad that a glut still exists even after making a bunch of butter and yogurt.
Source: Jiji.com, The Sankei News, Itai News
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© SoraNews24
80 Comments
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JeffLee
Ovaltine and eggnog for me, especially this time of year.
Sven Asai
Yes, easy, pay everyone more , then everyone can afford to pay even fair or higher prices and also drink more of it. But I guess, that’s not an option they prefer. So the disposal is bigger and more expensive and milk farmers are also forced out of the agricultural business.
virusrex
As mentioned in the article the declaration was not done with the health of people in minds, it served an economic purpose.
Ubesh
Something I learnt when studying health in India is that western-style milk consumption might be bad for health in Asian populations. It's something that was imported to Asia during colonialism when the health effects between different ethnic groups were not fully understood, and nowadays Indians seem to drink milk more than westerners (when given money to do so) despite it being worse for their health. East Asians are in fact less capable of drinking milk than Indians. It is possible to increase your ability to drink milk (as has happened with Indians) so you are more tolerant to it, but East Asians have not reached that level of biological adaptability yet.
Cheradenine Zakalwe
And with regards to helping affected businesses, Kishida gave all the people of Japan a very specific example of what we can do to help: “I am asking the people of Japan to use milk in cooking and to drink cups of milk always through the New Year’s holiday in order to prevent a mass disposal.”
When they are confronted by a new crisis, the LDP are sometimes very precious in their naive responses, because just bailing out cronies does not suffice sometimes.
So you get please drink milk, we will send you meat and fish tickets in a pandemic bringing the economy to a standstill, here is a mascot with safety instructions, decorative Abenomasks, etc. etc.
Meiyouwenti
If you’re post menopausal and want to prevent osteoporosis, drink it.
Olive
I’m there for you Kishida-san!
Im going to make a triple batch of eggnog this Christmas!
FizzBit
I’ll try Kishida ! Gambadu !
But I’m not sure I can drink more as I’m close to a liter a day now.
cleo
If there's a milk glut, turn it into butter which has been priced way too high for as long as I can remember and has also suffered shortages.
If there's any left, turn it into cheese, and clotted cream.
Though we don't drink much milk as is, we get through roughly a litre a day on average for two of us. I think we're doing our bit.
Lower the price of the lo-temp pasteurised stuff, and I'll make cheese with it over the holidays.
Paul
I am doing my bit to save the milk industry, I have been drinking 4 to 5 liters of milk per week most of my life!
purple_depressed_bacon
I'm lactose intolerant. Find me some lactose free milk - not soy milk; not almond milk; not rice milk - in this country and I'll happily comply.
Yubaru
Soy milk IS lactose free, so what's the problem?
https://isitveganjapan.com/food-products-s-z/soy-milk/
shogun36
It would help if they sold more fat free options.
I only have one store in my area that carries it and its usually sold out unless you get there when they stock it.
Then you see the other 30 brands just over piling on the counters.
Maybe if they paid attention to what actually sells, and what warms shelves, they might find solutions.
And I don't get the hate with milk in Japan. Or root beer.
These people eat natto, nankotsu and horumon. They have no idea what good stuff is.
Matt Hartwell
Giving the aging population of the developed world, its actually a good call.
So many old people rapidly go downhill after a fall and significant fractures and injuries. People that up until then were doing quite well in their old age.
Its a wise idea to keep your bones strong for your entire life, but particularly as you get older its important.
tooheysnew
I’ll do my bit - where’s the Kahlua ?
Fighto!
Well stated by Kishida.
We should all aim to drink 1 litre of milk per day. Good for health, and keeps the producers in business.
Wick's pencil
Why, is it just that people don't want to go out and buy it?
Mr Kipling
Milk is the perfect nutritionally balanced food....... For baby cows. Not humans.
However, growing up next to a dairy farm and getting out milk straight from the dairy, I can assure you that the white liquid in bottles or packs is not milk but a milk product. Cream taken out, pasteurized, mixed.... I put it in coffee etc but would never drink it straight.
hattorikun
“Why, is it just that people don't want to go out and buy it?“
mostly due to a significant decline in purchase from commercial sector, ie hotels etc. household consumption should still be healthy.
hattorikun
Will drink more milk maybe. Not a fan of it. Always drink full fat milk… Wife is the main consumer of milk in our household.
wtfjapan
if youve got a huge surplus, why not just make butter from it, Japan can add it to their exports.
wtfjapan
or even dry it and make it into powdered baby formula, Chinese will buy it by the container load
Oxycodin
no thanks drinking milk depletes your magnesium stores
Fighto!
Are you suggesting increase trade with commie China?
Dangerous idea.
John-San
All human were lactose intolerant. Due climate improvement, winter became very serve and harsh from the Tropic of Cancer northwards. So humans in the north started to starve during these winter. Human societies started to relay on milk from caught mother mammals. So human developed tolerance to lactose due to the need to survive. This can be proven by the high numbers of lactose intolerant human living in the Tropic. Ever wonder why dairy was never part of asian food culture.
Hiro
Hey, for once someone finally said something else except taking booster shot. He is kinda right. Milk does help strengthen the immune system. People are sometimes like kids. When they don't want to, they will always find some excuse to avoid certain food or drink. But in life when there is a will, there is a way. There are always solutions if you truly want to. He gave you the advice, so whether you take it or not is up to you. Just don't blame others when you get sick in winter.
Luddite
Butter. Someone tell him about churning butter from milk.
bass4funk
I drink only skim milk.
factchecker
Moron. Start by redirecting subsidies away from the inefficient rice farmers to dairy and beef cattle farmers if you're really serious about it.
smithinjapan
LOVE all the sensible people in the article saying they would gladly... if the government made it cheaper. Gotta be better than dumping it.
purple_depressed_bacon
It's not milk. That's the problem. Taste, texture etc. is different. Oh and I'm allergic to soy. That's the second problem.
Khaos
I wouldn't drink milk even if you pay me.
Mitsuo Matsuyama
I strong support Japanese businessman and I already do such thing. I buy milk, cheese, butter, bread, cake, and everything that contain milk inside.
The Avenger
How dairy?
Ah_so
And to all those who said the same, what would we then do with the butter mountain it would create?
There is limited demand for butter in Japan, hence it's relatively high price.
MaikuC
ReasonandWisdomNippon
This is about food waste.
In Japan is not as bad as other countries, but the PM still wants to do his part.
This is from news overseas quote:''With restaurants, hotels and schools closed, many of the nation’s largest farms are destroying millions of pounds of fresh goods that they can no longer sell.''
Not just a Japan Only Problem.
Jtsnose
Milk has calcium needed for healthy bones and teeth for humans . . . it also has Vitamin D which helps skin to be healthy . . . best to drink nonfat milk (low in cholesterol) . . . milk is made sanitary through pasteurization . . ..
GBR48
Not sure why there should be a surplus because of the pandemic. Most things are now in short supply. People still eat and drink whether they do it at eateries, at school or at home.
If something isn't selling, produce less of it. If you don't understand that, you shouldn't be running a business.
I thought that lactose intolerance was an issue for Asians. Drinking more milk won't make you healthier if you are intolerant to it. Drink more water if you want to be healthier. Most people are dehydrated. If your pee isn't light straw coloured, you may be too. Good hydration in important.
I'm vegan and drink soya milk. Most governments are urging less meat consumption and less dairy farming, to reduce emissions. Why is he doing the opposite? Bizarre.
Strangerland
The only way I drink more milk is if I drink more coffee. I haven't had a glass of milk... as an adult.
cleo
Chance would be a fine thing. they could put it on the supermarket shelves to fill the empty spaces behind the 'Limited to one pack per customer' signs.
You've got that backward. There is limited demand for butter in Japan because of its high price. And still the shelves are empty.
TARA TAN KITAOKA
Why ???.
Chottobaka
That's it! I'm going to start bathing in milk.
Yubaru
Sorry, but it sounds like you want something that doesnt exist here. You want milk, that is lactose free.
Pray tell, does such a thing even exist?
kurisupisu
Cooking pasta or rice with milk is a good way to use it.
sf2k
Terrible advise! Japanese were far more healthy before they took up a Western diet. Compare Okinawa elders to adults today for an extreme example but same problem
sf2k
argh autocorrect... advice not advise
Workaholic Brothers
Protecting the primary industry is important.
iradickle
If I could get my hands on a crate of Lucky Charms I'd put a dent in that surplus.
Chottobaka
LOL, ooo being all fancy.
Tokyo-gaijin
Milk and other dairy products are the top source of saturated fat in the American diet, contributing to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. Studies have also linked dairy to an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers.
https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/nutrition-information/health-concerns-about-dairy
John-San
I can still remember the first time I tasted Hokkaido milk. I was amaze at the high quality of taste compared to what I was drinking in Australia. I check the the fat contains, 4.8 g was Japan 3.4 g was Australian. 20 % more fat Japan milk has. If you enjoy soft cheese, Japan produce some very appealing soft cheese . It time like these a Japan business man will see this has a opportunity to make money. Japan lacks a hard cheese industry this is due to herd size believe it or not. Also hard cheese take a time and storage space at 15c all year round and regular yearly supply of milk. Japan is known world wide for it butter storage during winter. So if you want to drink milk in your coffee I would start drinking more coffee. Because when a farmer sell off his herd to the dog food company. It take 5 years minimum for a farming to build up a herd to start making a reasonable profit. Compared one season to crop farm .That dairy farmer while not go back cows.
WilliB
Afaic, milk is for baby cows, not for humans. And what in the world does milk have to do with omicron? I do not understand the article.
WilliB
Bubonam Justin
Yes, but unless you are baby, what we call "milk" is cow milk, not human milk, elephant milk, dolphin milk or whatever.
Iron Lad
Good call from Kishida!
Milk is what everyone needs, along with eggs.
These are superfood.
sf2k
Not at all. Eggs are linked to heart disease due to high cholesterol as well, so absolutely not, neither are super foods, both are health negative.
if you care to know about things rather than just say things please visit https://www.nutritionfacts.org
sf2k
after you are a baby you no longer require milk. No animal on this planet lives that way, except us, and only because of politics
Addfwyn
I am lactose intolerant, but even if I wasn't the idea of drinking other animals' milk is always sorta weird to me. Maybe because I associate it with horrible indigestion. I'd sooner drink milk substitutes like soy or almond "milk" where necessary.
A politician calling for an increase in dairy consumption is exceptionally weird though, is the dairy lobby that strong in Japan?
Iron Lad
@sf2k
I eat eggs and drink milk every days without problems.
They are superfood.
Wick's pencil
I see, thanks. I guess school cafeterias might also be affected by the pandemic.
Those who have issues with lactose might want to make yogurt out of it. Very easy to make, and no need to buy a yogurt maker.
William Bjornson
What to do with the unstoppable flow of teat juice?
Make more ice cream, and soon you won't be able to distinguish an American on the street by their 'width' from 300 meters because the Nihonjin around them will be the same size...but, if Nihon wants to do 'foreign aid', a well designed milk based infant formula might remove much malnutrition and stunted potentialities in more highly psychopath parasitized and, thereby, impoverished populations...
Incidentally, if the government were to subsidize feed costs, dairy cows do not have to be sacrificed to dog food, they just have to not be 'freshened', an agricultural euphemism for the routine artificial insemination which produces the cruelest of all meats, veal, and induces milk production in the mammary glands (udder). A percentage of the herd can 'rest' a year until market conditions improve. Sake mash which surely must be in abundance in Nihon, might even prove a viable feed source as it is for Wagyu...
FizzBit
Wow, lots folks on here downing milk (haha). What I don’t get is the criticism of Americans over dairy products. It’s clearly the HFCS and those massive 7/11 sodas and sugar and fast food and sofas/video games/teevee, more often than not.
Leave dairy and milk out of it please.
sf2k
Milk linked to diabetes, prostrate cancer, infertility, the list goes on and on. You want to lice to 100, it won't be cause of milk
sf2k
*live
Kumagaijin
I can literally eat a huge block of Costco aged cheddar every week if that helps.
lolozo79
Milk is a baby food, originally consumed by humans when there was nothing to eat. All other mammals stop drinking it once they are able to eat solid foods. It is an unnatural food source which, over time, leads to an array of stomach problems if consumed.
CrashTestDummy
I'm lactose intolerant. Trust me, people don't want me drinking milk. Lol.
Tom San
How about more yoghurt and cheese made from the surplus milk???