Rice, beer, and salad: Varying constructions of "craving" in Japan

Food cravings are an important phenomena/concept within approaches to overeating in Western contexts. However, the cross-cultural research on craving has so far been modest, despite a wide range of literature in anthropology and other fields that demonstrate the broad variations not only in eating practices but in the experiences and motivations for eating. This examines quantitative data collected using a variation of the Food Craving Inventory (FCI) collected in the context of a long-term ethnographic study of Japanese eating practices in order to examine cravings within a mixed age and gender Japanese sample. While the results show widespread experiences of craving, not only do the types of foods craved vary markedly from commonplace Western ones-which tend to be calorie dense and restricted-but also differ from one another in motivations for/experiences of craving. Beyond providing cross-cultural comparison, then, the study suggests a need for conceptual rethinking of craving itself and of the range of factors that drive it.