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The story
“I’ve looked at school lunches all over the country, and milk is by far the biggest cost item — we should scrap it and put that money toward food instead,” proposed Daisuke Sugihara, an independent city councilman from Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, in a social media post that sparked debate on 5ch. In the thread, some pointed out that milk is nearly the only drink that can meet Ministry of Education (MEXT) nutrition standards at low cost, and others warned that scrapping it would hit dairy farmers hard. Meanwhile, other posters called for consideration of kids who simply dislike milk or can’t tolerate it physically. The discussion also branched out into related topics like the safety of the margarine served at school lunches.
What people said
I've seen all kinds of school lunches across the country,
and overall, what strikes me is that 'milk' is the biggest—
I drink it every day myself
To be precise:
if you factor in both meeting MEXT standards and cost-effectiveness, milk is basically the only option.
People who want to drop milk for some other menu
should present that menu first.
If someone's got your head pinned down, the punch can't reach you
Plenty of people hate milk
that stuff's basically edible plastic
The idea that margarine is "edible plastic" isn't scientific fact — it's a false rumor (urban legend).
• Mixed-up terminology: It comes from confusing the English word "plasticity" (the property of deforming easily under force) with synthetic "plastic."
• Different chemistry: Plastic is a giant molecule humans can't digest, whereas margarine's ingredients are fatty acids the body can break down and metabolize.
so this isn't really about cost —
it's about taste preference
though it's unavoidable since the ovens were fired with oil
There was really a time like that?
And now they're pressuring Japan to import pest-ridden potatoes.
they'll say feeding everyone the same thing is dangerous,
and it ends up getting scrapped anyway
a year later, it still hadn't gone bad
• Misconception about spoilage: pure oils and fats, synthetic or natural, resist bacteria and mold growth, so they barely change even after a long time. Ask yourself — does a bottle of salad oil left on a shelf go bad? No, it doesn't.
Some people go their whole lives
never once thinking about calcium intake.
Give it enough time and your bones turn to mush.
ended up with a butter-only, high-class palate
is Japan really in that dire a state?
trying every trick to keep people from drinking it
over 300 yen now, that's rough
It says 200ml right on it
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Under the School Lunch Act, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sets nutritional standards for school lunches, and milk has long been relied on as a stable, low-cost source of calcium and protein. Sugihara’s post calls for reallocating the food budget, but offers no concrete alternative menu or nutrition plan, which is why many on the thread pushed back with “propose a replacement menu before you say that.” The debate split largely into two camps: a financial question of whether milk is really squeezing school lunch budgets, and a nutritional question of whether milk is simply a matter of taste or an essential nutrient source. Concerns about the impact on the dairy industry, along with unverified claims about Sugihara’s past political stances, also came up in the thread — though it’s worth noting the latter is circulating without any confirmed backing.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Head of the ‘Association for a Brighter Future for Children’: ‘I’ve looked at school lunches nationwide — isn’t milk costing the most? We should scrap it and put that money toward food instead’.”
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